This blog and video about Changing Belief Systems and Healing Your Anxiety comes from a reader’s question. (If you have a question for me, ask in the comments! I will probably make a video for you!)
Anxiety vs. Belief Systems
Here is the question:
Hi Jodi,
Do you have to heal belief systems from the past in order to heal from anxiety? For example, I know that my nervous system freaks out easily and says “Be careful!” “Watch out!” due to abandonment from early years. There is a lack of trust in life and fear my body will malfunction (because it does a lot). So, do you have to be [changing belief systems] in order to move forward to freedom? Or do you have to learn to trust yourself in the present?
The heart of the question I hear is, “Do you have to heal the past or just build trust in the future?”
You have very little attention and energy when you have anxiety so getting these answers is important. Let’s save time and put that little bit of effort into doing THE best practice to getting better. However, this is also anxiety insidiously at work pinning you down, when you think it is protecting you (by saving your time). “You have to do it right!’ it says, when it is really causing you to feel more out of control because you don’t know what is right and God-forbid you make a mistake.
Healing Your Anxiety
The approach I use doesn’t make you choose between changing belief systems from the past and building trust in the future because either one will trigger the other. Our past and how we understand it is the biggest culprit in why we mistrust ourselves in the present. When you make peace with what happened you see it differently and you see yourself differently. You stop the negative judgments about it and start to see your skills. This is how you build trust in the present. And when we work on affirmations to build trust in our present self we start to rethink those negative taken-for-granted views about our past.
Watch the video to get the details.
Changing Belief Systems and Healing Your Anxiety
Changing Your Belief Systems! Video with @JodiAmanClick To TweetBeliefs stick because we repeat them over and over
If you keep asking, “What is wrong with me?” then, you are going to think you don’t know what is wrong with you, (even though, for example, you know your feelings were hurt when someone was mean to you). Stop repeating this negative self judgment by building trust in yourself through self-compassion.
Beliefs are very powerful. One big difference between people who continue to suffer from anxiety and those that get better fast is that they believe that they can. You think I can and you can’t.
If you believe that you will be okay eventually – this means you trust that you WILL figure this out – you will. Get help here.
Hope that answers your question!
Tell me below what beliefs are holding you back…
Thanks so much for answering my question Jodi! I do get it. Thanks to your book, and therapy, I am learning to trust myself more. I never even knew that I didn’t trust myself or my body, but I’m on that road and I tell myself that a lot. That was a belief from the past, s my mom never trusted herself either. My mom died last year and I no longer felt safe in the world without her protection, and my nervous system freaked out. Whilst I feel safer now 20 months later, my nervous system does not. I went to the store the other day, feeling excited cause I have not been out and about a lot this last year, and felt great being there and excited cause I was shopping, and within 5 minutes my body started shaking like a leaf and heart started racing and boom! Had to leave. Its so maddening how its constantly doing this. In my head I’m not afraid, but my body reacts anyway.
I agree with you, Jodi. It’s the law of attraction. If you believe you CAN get better, you WILL eventually get better!
Thank you for sharing your insights.
Thank you so much Pauline!