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Today we will dive deep into the challenges of letting health anxiety go. Letting go of health anxiety can also be challenging due to:
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Uncertainty and Fear of the Unknown: Health anxiety often stems from a fear of the unknown and the uncertainty surrounding one’s health. The mind tends to fixate on potential health issues, leading to a constant state of worry and anticipation of negative outcomes. The fear of not being in control can make it difficult to let go.
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Cognitive Patterns and Catastrophizing: Individuals with health anxiety often engage in cognitive patterns such as catastrophizing, where they imagine the worst-case scenarios about their health. Breaking free from these ingrained thought patterns requires conscious effort and often involves challenging and changing deeply rooted beliefs about illness and danger.
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Reassurance Seeking and Hypervigilance: Seeking reassurance from healthcare professionals, frequent monitoring of bodily sensations, and excessive research on symptoms are common behaviors associated with health anxiety. This constant vigilance can reinforce the anxiety loop, as it provides temporary relief but perpetuates the underlying fear. Letting go involves resisting the urge to seek reassurance and gradually reducing hypervigilant behaviors.
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Dennis
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Table of Contents
Introduction
Thank you so much for joining us. For you to begin your healing journey, visit anxietyexit.com to start the program today. Now, here’s your host, The Anxiety Guide. Warriors, welcome to Episode 53 of the Health Anxiety Podcast. Thank you for joining me today. And you know what? We’ve got some very important things to discuss here so that we can continue to contribute to the health and safety of our health.
The Health Anxiety Program
Now, before I get into the topic of today’s podcast episode, I want to remind you that the Health Anxiety Program is now out at theanxietyguy.com under Health Anxiety. 12 Weeks to Freedom begins today at the link below
Shifting Focus from Survival to Thriving
Each and every day, almost every single moment, it was focused on survival. It wasn’t focused on thriving. It wasn’t focused on creativity.
Exploring Health Anxiety
Today I want to talk about leaving the world of health anxiety, why it’s so scary, and why we continue to stay in this place.
Guiding Principles for Healing
I have three very important principles that I want you to understand, and in fact, if you want to write down, even better, because it’s not about just listening to this podcast. It’s about noting down what speaks to you, number one, taking the tools, and beginning to apply these tools gently, compassionately, each and every day, without focusing on the result, without focusing, focusing on the result.
Three Important Principles
Reevaluating Worry
The first thing I want to talk about is the fear is connected to the amount of value that we have placed on worry, not only towards symptoms but towards all unfamiliar life experiences. We have placed a tremendous amount of value on the idea that we are not alone.
False Notions about Worry
We have placed a tremendous amount of value on the idea of worrying. And when we don’t worry about something, we feel like the outcome isn’t going to be something that has already been a familiar outcome in our lives. For example, why do parents worry so much about their kids? You don’t need to worry that much, but the worry holds value.
Challenging Worry Narratives
The more I worry, the better parent I am. False. False. False. The more you worry, the more time you are wasting, the more energy you are wasting, and the more you’re living in the future based on a traumatic past rather than living in the present mindfully. So I want you to ask yourself, how much value have I placed on worry? And am I in fact ready to give up all this value for something I don’t really know much about yet? If you can answer that question with yes, then you’re going to find yourself in a new place. I’m not saying that new place is going to be comfortable, but it is going to be freeing in time.
Fear of Loss and Uncertainty
Embracing Change
The second thing you need to understand is that the fear is connected to a feeling of loss over who we are and the uncertainty of who we will become in the process. This comes with a lot of question marks, mainly connected to how people will accept us and react to our newfound identity.
Societal Influences
It seems that we are living the way society wants us to live. I mean, you don’t go on social media and find all these organic and natural ways of healing things. No, no, no. You find all sorts of artificial ways. Of dealing with things.
Internalizing Healing
We never are tapping into the idea that we can heal ourselves, but through all the ads that we’re unconsciously processing in our brains each and every day, social media, news, commercials, you name it, we feel like the answer is somewhere on the outside. And that’s what keeps our suffering alive.
Trusting Your Inner Wisdom
The answers are on the inside. You already know what to do. You just don’t trust what you know enough to act on it each and every day. You don’t believe that you can have the answer, but it has to come from somebody else, some piece of information, some epiphany that will show up at any moment. And at this point, you’re relying on quick fixes.
Letting Go of Comfort Zones
The Inner Child’s Tendency
Quick fixes are going to give you a boost, a dopamine boost, a serotonin boost, a feeling of calmness. But what does this subconscious mind-body, the inner child, love to do? It loves to pull you back into a familiar past.
Breaking the Chain
And so, if you are, in fact, addicted to suffering right now, guess what? Even if you overcome your health anxiety, you’re going to find another way to suffer. This isn’t consciously, of course. This is unconsciously. Suffering is what the inner child knows best. So, it reverts back to this way of programming, this way of being, this way of looking in the mirror, until the chain is broken.
Rediscovering Your True Self
Letting Go of Comfort Zones
Number three, comfort zones connected to ways of thinking, perceiving, acting, beliefs, environments, friends, career, what we call fun. What we call fun. We all have to be let go of, keyword, all.
Embracing the Unknown
Going from a known world, health anxiety, addiction to suffering, to an unknown world, inner peace, contentness, is the biggest challenge. It’s not that change is hard. It’s that letting go comes with a sense of losing more than we want to. In turn, we soak ourselves. Our feet in that cold lake of water, but we rarely go swimming.
The Essence of Your True Self
If I tap into healing a bit, then I’ll still have an idea of who I am. Let me tell you something. Health anxiety is something that you developed. It’s not who you are. It’s a conditioning. It’s a programming. And everything that you do throughout the day, unconsciously, is geared towards keeping you within this health. This isn’t your natural way of being. This isn’t your natural way of living. You are more carefree. You are more humorous. You don’t sort for things that could go wrong. You sort for things that could go right. This is your natural, divine self. Health anxiety is your artificial self.
Embracing Unity and Sacrifice
And when you can come to understand this, then you can begin to see that you are not alone. Then you can begin to sacrifice what you need to. Sacrificing the idea that if I can just pay attention to every single bodily symptom, then I’ll be ahead of the game. If something does go wrong, I’ll be ahead of the game. Therefore, I’ll take care of it.
Changing Your Mindset
The Cycle of Suppression
So you live your entire life suppressing, suppressing, suppressing ideas. Suppressing. Never expressing. Always looking to survive, but never thriving. Feeling like you’re all alone. On this planet, yes, you’re living, but you’re not really living. This was me for a very long time.
Rethinking Healing Attempts
Let me tell you something. You’ve tried to heal many, many times. You’ve tried different techniques. You’ve tried different therapies. You’ve tried to absorb the right pieces of information. But the problem isn’t in the information or techniques that did not work.
Addressing Mindset
It’s in your mindset. Your mindset is wrong. You’re approaching everything the wrong way. If you approach something in a fight, flight, or freeze reaction, then what’s going to happen is you’re never going to be able to fully focus and be absorbed in what you’re doing. You’ll hope that the information can change you rather than using the information to change you. This whole idea of trying things needs to go out the window.
Embracing Uncertainty
Shifting Focus
Also, you have to stop talking about anything that reminds you of your anxiety. That doesn’t mean distracting from. That means paying attention to. Paying attention to what? Things you’ve never paid attention to for so long. For goodness sakes, your kids are right there in front of you. And you’re hoping that your health anxiety doesn’t move and transition into them.
Generational Healing
Well, guess what? This is your calling. Because generation after generation, your family has suffered from anxiety. Generational trauma after generational trauma. Stored in the brain. Stored in the three processors of the body. The brain. The stomach. The heart.
The Power of Mindset
And now, it’s up to you to look deep within and say, this isn’t how I’m supposed to live. Change your mindset. And you’re 50% there. Your mindset must be that of being focused on the idea that the result doesn’t matter.
Long-Term Perspective
It’s not about doing a technique and focusing on, did it work? How do I feel? No, this is long term. Health, anxiety, healing must be seen as a marathon, not a sprint.
Embracing Freedom
Remember, remember, remember, remember, remember this. Certainty is limiting. Uncertainty is freedom. So let’s embrace it starting today. 12 weeks to health anxiety freedom at theanxietyguy.com under health anxiety. Learn more about the most powerful health anxiety program available to you online today. I’ll see you next month in the next episode. And until then, remember that you are more. Than anxiety. Bye bye. Warriors.
Podcast Appreciation
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