Earthquakes..........Hurricanes.........No Electric Oh My!!
As my business partner and I sat in her office on Tuesday, August 23rd, we felt the "earth move under our feet". Just as Carol King sings in her song, "I Feel the Earth Move", I pondered if the "sky was gonna come tumbling down". As "my heart started to tremble", I took off running like a NFL football wide receiver right out of the building. I wondered what my client's might think of my panic-stricken behavior, beings I work with a great deal of anxiety and panic attacks in my psychotherapy practice. As I flew out of the building, I turned around and looked for my business partner. I couldn't find her which increased my anxiety and panic to another level. I ran away from the 12 story building up onto a hill, as if that would save me from the shaking planet. As I fumbled for my phone that was already in my hand, I attempted to make contact with my husband. However, it seemed his phone number was mysteriously erased from my mind. As I made several attempts to call him, I realized I had dialed it correctly and it was just that the phone lines were jammed and I could not get through. At the same time I wondered, "Where is my partner"? I noticed the people in the building across the street were evacuating and it seemed like 100 more people came running out of my building as well. I prided myself on my "fight or flight" response that ensued my being the winner of the race out of my building. Oh, that's right.....it wasn't a race!!! I still couldn't find my business partner. At that point, the earth had stopped it's frightful shiver and I finally made eye contact with my business partner whom remained calm and walked away from the building very collected. She spent time with earthquakes in her previous life doing missionary work in third-world countries. Shaken and relieved to see her safe, I barked out, "where were you"?
It was about 4.5 minutes from the time that the earth shook until I found my business partner and I was able to make contact through text message to my husband that I realized we had just experienced an earthquake. As my body started it's feeble attempt to find homeostasis, I wanted to take the rest of the day off.
Many similar stories blanketed the area of the earthquake from North Carolina to New York. I noticed how the West Coast gets quaked all the time and no-one really seems to notice too much. The big-bad Northeasterners were taken by surprise! And as if Mother Nature knew what she was doing, the same area was shaken by Irene. Is she related to Eileen? Come on........
I pondered the significance of these two events in candle light because "the lights went down in the city". Journey sang that song sometime in the 80's and all I wanted to do was to take a Journey to find some hot running water.
It was interesting that I kept finding old familiar tunes in my head during the week's earth shaking events which made me laugh, and then I felt gratitude about the generator in my garage that at least allowed me to see "clouds in my coffee", thank you Carly Simon.
What does all this have to do with anxiety? Quite a lot actually.
When the world shakes, get out of the way and find solid ground.
When the world rolls, go with it.
When the world dims the lights, work harder to see.
It was hard to maintain a sense of calm when I had no idea what was going on. My business partner knew we were in an earthquake, therefore she was very calm. The Amygdala part of my brain had altered my body and all systems were GO. My business partner told herself we were in a small earthquake and the Neo-Cortex of her brain was in full operation. The Neo-Cortex is the area of the brain that is responsible for higher level/rational thinking as opposed to the Mid-brain where the Amygdala sits. This area of the brain is the part that deals with involuntary responses to potentially harmful situations. It's job is to get the body to safety which primarily involves a lot of neuro-chemical transmitters and hormones. While my Amygdala was in full operation, my Neo-Cortex went on vacation. No rational or high level thinking was taking place in my brain. While my body struggled to find homeostasis after the event, my body was drained from the surge of hormones and thoughts about safety.
What do you tell yourself about the problems in your life? Do you let your problems take you by surprise, and do your problems feel like an earthquake? What do you tell yourself? Do you run for the hills or do you take your time to gather your thoughts, and then respond?
How you think about your problems provides a direct link to how your brain responds, and then your body responds. Those with high anxiety think catastrophically about the world in which they live and their bodies are always ready to take flight, similar to how I flew out the building when I felt the earthquake. How you think about your problems influences how to handle them and also how you deal with them.
Are your problems earthquakes or hurricanes?
Finding connections in the world and making sense out of seemingly random data is how I found my passion to work with folks with anxiety-related problems. It's not that the folks I work with can't make sense out of the acutely chaotic and random data in their busy lives, but rather helping them make connections and de-catastrophize their problems is what I love to do. And while the last few days of earthquakes and hurricanes leave most of us unsettled about what might be happening in the world, it might make sense to note the differences between catastrophic thinking and non-catastrophic thinking. It is quite possible that our planet earth needs to stretch, crack, and blow off a little steam from time to time just like we all do.
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It was about 4.5 minutes from the time that the earth shook until I found my business partner and I was able to make contact through text message to my husband that I realized we had just experienced an earthquake. As my body started it's feeble attempt to find homeostasis, I wanted to take the rest of the day off.
Many similar stories blanketed the area of the earthquake from North Carolina to New York. I noticed how the West Coast gets quaked all the time and no-one really seems to notice too much. The big-bad Northeasterners were taken by surprise! And as if Mother Nature knew what she was doing, the same area was shaken by Irene. Is she related to Eileen? Come on........
I pondered the significance of these two events in candle light because "the lights went down in the city". Journey sang that song sometime in the 80's and all I wanted to do was to take a Journey to find some hot running water.
It was interesting that I kept finding old familiar tunes in my head during the week's earth shaking events which made me laugh, and then I felt gratitude about the generator in my garage that at least allowed me to see "clouds in my coffee", thank you Carly Simon.
What does all this have to do with anxiety? Quite a lot actually.
When the world shakes, get out of the way and find solid ground.
When the world rolls, go with it.
When the world dims the lights, work harder to see.
It was hard to maintain a sense of calm when I had no idea what was going on. My business partner knew we were in an earthquake, therefore she was very calm. The Amygdala part of my brain had altered my body and all systems were GO. My business partner told herself we were in a small earthquake and the Neo-Cortex of her brain was in full operation. The Neo-Cortex is the area of the brain that is responsible for higher level/rational thinking as opposed to the Mid-brain where the Amygdala sits. This area of the brain is the part that deals with involuntary responses to potentially harmful situations. It's job is to get the body to safety which primarily involves a lot of neuro-chemical transmitters and hormones. While my Amygdala was in full operation, my Neo-Cortex went on vacation. No rational or high level thinking was taking place in my brain. While my body struggled to find homeostasis after the event, my body was drained from the surge of hormones and thoughts about safety.
What do you tell yourself about the problems in your life? Do you let your problems take you by surprise, and do your problems feel like an earthquake? What do you tell yourself? Do you run for the hills or do you take your time to gather your thoughts, and then respond?
How you think about your problems provides a direct link to how your brain responds, and then your body responds. Those with high anxiety think catastrophically about the world in which they live and their bodies are always ready to take flight, similar to how I flew out the building when I felt the earthquake. How you think about your problems influences how to handle them and also how you deal with them.
Are your problems earthquakes or hurricanes?
Finding connections in the world and making sense out of seemingly random data is how I found my passion to work with folks with anxiety-related problems. It's not that the folks I work with can't make sense out of the acutely chaotic and random data in their busy lives, but rather helping them make connections and de-catastrophize their problems is what I love to do. And while the last few days of earthquakes and hurricanes leave most of us unsettled about what might be happening in the world, it might make sense to note the differences between catastrophic thinking and non-catastrophic thinking. It is quite possible that our planet earth needs to stretch, crack, and blow off a little steam from time to time just like we all do.
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