Does your anxiety wax and wane depending on factors hidden from your conscious awareness?
Bob Klein* has provocative, albeit elusive means of enhancing our ability to live a less anxious life.
To describe a paradigm very different from ours, he uses words. Words imply he is going to give us the final answer. On the contrary, Bob wants us to feel and experience our own reactions. These words are not to be memorized. They are to be experienced.
In the spirit of full disclosure, Bob wasn’t specifically asked a question about anxiety. I am unpacking four pages of material he emailed earlier with the conviction that an answer is in there ready to be discovered.
Be prepared for frustration; a definitive answer will not be divulged at the end of this post.
Most of us picture attention residing in our heads because that is where our eyes are located. Using our eyes, we “place” our attention on an object, thought, or physical feeling.
When we become tired, we move our attention with our eyes to another object, thought or feeling. This method limits us to seeing/experiencing the surface of one thing at a time. “Eye” attention gives us a non-systemic surface view of the world.
This one-dimensional view soon irritates us like a scratchy tag on our new shirt. We crave the depth, the height, the inner and the outer energy that allows us to use all our senses.
When we can’t pursue our passions, we quickly become bored.
Are you beginning to discern one cause of anxiety?
It isn’t natural to constrain our focus of attention to the mere surface of things. We are curious creatures and to defend against our need to relish the depths makes us dissatisfied and anxious.
We employ the defense of denial to not know what we sense but can’t see. When we deny our feelings of unease, our anxiety doesn’t disappear – it goes underground. It then takes a good deal of our psychological energy to keep it hidden. When it threatens to erupt, our anxiety increases.
We are sneaking up on the causes of anxiety. Tune in next week to continue the chase.
Thanks for exploring the mystery with me – I truly appreciate your attention. Nicky Mendenhall
*You can learn more about Bob Klein by visiting his website: www.movementsofmagic.com.
If you would like to read earlier posts in this series or subscribe to receive an email when there is a new post or read this post on the blog, visit www.NickyMendenhall.blogspot.com