Anxiety F***, Anxiety F*** OFF

1.30 am, I wake, I need a wee.  Anxiety nails me to the bed, its like I have a bulk bag of sand laying on me. I can’t move.  Anxiety, F***

I have to move, I’m gonna wet the bed. I can’t move. I want to wallow, wallow in self pity.  I snap the band on my wrist. Ouch!, I do it again, and again. It’s working, the pain is cutting through the weight.  I would add, I’m not self-harming, just using a little pain to replug the connections in my head.  Anxiety F*** off!

I get up and go to the bathroom.  I am now worried that my anxiety will keep my mind turning and sleep will become a thing of the past for the next few hours.  Anxiety, F***!

Remembering my own advice I don’t think about going to sleep, I think about getting cosy, that usually works. It does, Anxiety F*** Off.

4.45 am the alarm goes off, yes there are two 4.45’s in a day. I did get back to sleep, but again I feel like I’ve got that bag of sand back on top of me. Anxiety F***.

I am stubborn. Having turned off the alarm I know I must stay awake. Five minutes later I get up. Anxiety F*** Off. I grab a drink of water and stumble across the dark room for some clothes. Smack my head on the ironing board, left up to remind us that the ironing needs doing. I swear. ‘F***’!

My wife hears me and asks if I’m ok. I manage humour! Anxiety F*** Off

I close the bedroom door behind me, go to the bathroom and then to the back bedroom to meditate.  I double up here. My backs bad so I lay on an acupuncture mat to meditate.  I find one for 20 minutes for emotional stability.  I need some of that right now.  I know longer would be good, but there’s a lot to do at a slow pace….

Anxiety F*** Off.

The meditation asks you to find a memory of childhood when I would’ve been 100% innocent and focus on that memory and the emotions attached to it.  I have one of those.  I have a memory of looking out of a moses basket at my parents faces and my grans face. I have to be less than a year old.  I know from talking to my parents that it would have probably been a Friday night when they’d drop me off to go and play badminton. Feeling good begins to flood through me. Anxiety f*** Off

End of my meditation I go out with the dogs, the sun is just rising and the sky is beautiful.  I suspend my usual prayer of gratitude and just talk to who ever is listening.  I read the other day that all the spirits of everything in this world have never stopped talking, it’s just that we have stopped listening, so I talk to anyone who might be listening.  Kestrel is there, along with pigeon and crow amongst others. Later I hear buzzard, but I don’t see him.  What is he saying? 

Anxiety F*** off.

I take a cup of tea up to my wife.  It was our first night at home together for a while and the need to offload had got the better of us.  She apologised.  That was awesome.  We talked a lot of stuff out.  That was cool. Anxiety F*** Off

And then I danced.  And danced.  With the swords today. Kufu and Remus came out to play.  What a release!

Anxiety F*** Off.

Where did I dance?  In my garden of course….

Anxiety GONE….

For now.

The balance is back on the level…

Life is tough right now. Many businesses have gone down the drain. I and the people I work with are producing a better product than ever, but keeping afloat is making life hard. Throw in a few other issues on top and that gnarly old bugger anxiety will always try to take advantage. I manage him pretty well these days, but he never really goes away.

I try to talk about the positives mostly, to keep banging on about anxiety gives him status in the present and I refuse to do that.  I let him go as far as I can and celebrate the strategies I have to achieve that. 

So, two things.  Do something, ACT, actions cure things.  Think about good stuff, you can’t have an emotion with out a thought.  It’s hard but it is possible.

You are a warrior, celebrate!