The Joy of The Present: Dealing With Anxiety Using Mindfulness

Most of us accept the reality given to us. That includes our thoughts and feelings. After all, if we think or feel it, it must be true on some level, we suppose. Our thoughts and feelings are communications to what is going on in the recesses of our soul, whether it’s love, fear, sadness, or tiredness. And as a therapist, the last thing I want to do is discount or invalidate a person’s thoughts or feelings. But…

There is another perspective. Our thoughts and feelings are just thoughts and feelings. They are information but are not the whole picture. We do have some power over them, especially through mindfulness of them. The present is always available to us. For example, this week I have paid extra attention to my anxiety because it has been swirling in my body because of various life events going on right now. And my anxiety is valid as an emotion. I have felt real fear for the future. And my body feels this in my chest. And my thoughts reflect this as well. What is going to happen? How will I deal with it? Fear dances through me, and it knocks me down a peg with stress.

But there is another way. The constant stream of thoughts need not be engaged but can be watched the way a writer steps back from the piece they are working on so they can look at it objectively and edit it. Our thoughts and feelings can be…