Finding Middle Ground

I have many clients referred to me for anxiety issues.

Personally, I feel that in our hurried culture and 'busy' lives, we all experience some anxiety. We are all alive...hence, some anxiety.

It is only when that anxiety begins to get the better of us that we must reach out for help: racing thoughts that never seem to end; sleepless nights; can't think clearly; depression; the inability to truly experience joy, peace...even love. Connection.

I usually start with my sweet clients who suffer from tremendous anxiety by explaining the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS). I suggest you research the ANS for a deeper understanding. My simplistic version is that most people alternate, depending on outside signals, to either a Sympathetic ( fight or flight ) response, or Parasympathetic ( freeze or play 'dead' ) response.

I explain to clients that the ANS is our bodies' 'first warning system' that danger is lurking: real, imagined or perceived danger. Again: real, imagined or perceived danger. It is the warning system that has been with us from the beginning.

In order to help clients begin to regulate this system within themselves...to find MIDDLE GROUND, it is important to know what it feels like to be at either end of the warning system...in high anxiety or deep numbness...and to also know what MIDDLE GROUND feels like. Literally...how does a body feel in any of the 3 positions? I don't often ask people to write this down, or draw it out, but I am going to begin. We can do this with some light hypnotherapy, to clearly experience, in the body, the sensations at either end and in the middle. Or clients can work on it at home. 

I believe that making this information more concrete through writing or drawing...or whatever form creativity takes for a person...will help them find MIDDLE GROUND. And that is what we are aiming for, that is what 'mindfulness' is all about, being present. 

So what is MIDDLE GROUND for you? How do you move from high activity, heart racing, palms sweaty...to calm? To an inner peace. Or from deep sadness, depression...to an inner sense of desire to connect? To create? To live?

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