Let’s just dive straight in.
I am at the airport lounge in Melbourne, on my way back to Bali, and my airport Lounge pass gets me 3hrs, so I want to get this Newsletter sorted chop-chop, and then get myself sorted with some yummy food I saw on the way in. 😉
The key messages of today’s article are simply:
1. There is a REAL cost to Anxiety (or any equivalent emotion that disrupts the nervous system).
2. There are great solutions (one with over 300 research studies validating its effectiveness).
When we truly understand what something is costing us, rather than a cursory understanding, it finally gives us the motivation and commitment to actually address it front on.
Rather than having its slow burn taking us off track.
Like an airplane, which is travelling from Melbourne to Bali, if the plotted course is deviated by just a degree or 2, you don’t end up in Denpasar (your intended destination), but probably land in one of the remote jungles on Papua New Guinea.
The same in life.
If anxiety causes you to go off course just a little bit, it ultimately alters your Destiny.
Let me tell you WHY anxiety throws you off course.
How anxiety throws a spanner in the works
You probably – like most people – feel anxiety in your gut.
Most likely the feeling is a result of signals passing between the neurons of your brain and gut, via the vagus nerve.
A result of the Autonomic Nervous System being stuck on the pathway to the Stress Response (Sympathetic Nervous System).
The stress response not only activates things like an elevated heart rate, an excess of cortisol, sweating, disruption of the digestive system, but for this conversation, one of the biggest disruptions is the access to our Frontal Cortex or Pre-Frontal Lobes of our brain.
The very part of our brain that does the highest level of “thinking”.
Thinking logically, thinking strategically, thinking with discernment, thinking with the ability to better gauge long-term consequences, and ultimately allowing you to make the BEST Decisions, for whatever you are facing in life.
The ability to make decisions to keep you “on course”.
Remember that every anxiety-induced, low to mid-tier quality decision you make, might take you off course by 0.5 degrees here, and 0.5 degrees there.
That sh#t adds up.
Taking you way off course.
To where you don’t want to be.
You cannot do your best thinking when you are anxious, or in fear.
Period.
Once we start to understaffing the real cost, we eventually come to the conclusion that it is absolutely worth us doing the simple things to keep us on course.
We will understand that before making any decisions (even the seemingly small ones), we need to balance the nervous system, and create more coherence at our heart.
Exactly what I did at a workshop on Sunday, with some pretty simple but HIGH-ROI Tools.
Which brings us to the next part of this discussion.
The tools…
The best tools to make sure we don’t become a little bit ‘dumber’
I was trying to find the right word.
Dumber sounds pretty harsh, but it is an actuate depiction.
If we cannot fully access the upper mind (the frontal cortex), because it is offline, it makes us less intelligent.
We can make decisions on the primal stuff – fight, dash or freeze – but we cannot solve anything remotely complex, and which typically have longer-term consequences.
Over the last 27 years, I have had my fair share of experimenting with different tools, to reduce anxiety, and deactivate the stress-response when it is not appropriate (i.e. for non-physical threats).
Here are my top 2.
1) Tapping (check out last week’s article HERE).
2) Breathing techniques (e.g. the WimHof Method or different pranayama techniques).
Both of these techniques take less than 10-mins to do, but have a powerful effect on regulating the nervous system, allowing us to access and fire up our upper mind.
Taking us from sort of wobbly not-so-smart, to real laser-focused, full-perspective, and highly-attuned smart.
That is where our full potential resides.
That is when we truly solve stuff.
We see possibilities.
We have the discernment to make the better choices.
We are tapped into the more intuitive parts of mind.
And I like to think it taps us into our Superhuman potential.
Our “true” potential.
Let me summarize.
In Summary
There is an absolute real cost to “anxiety” and fear, when it comes to making “good” decisions.
We need to understand and acknowledge the cost, so we have the emotional energy to “do something about it”.
The two most effective things to do about it are: 1) Tapping, and 2) intentional Breathing (e.g. WimHof Method).
If you make small sub-optimal decisions (due to a hijacked mind), they eventually add up to you being completely “off course”.
My Parting Words
I had the joy on Sunday of running a 3hr workshop in Mildura, Australia.
It was 20% theory and 80% practical.
The theme of the workshop was to balance the Nervous System, and create a Coherent Heart.
And it turns out it is much easier to create a coherent heart, once the nervous system is regulated.
From the Sympathetic Nervous System (“anxiety” or “fear”) and towards a default setting of Parasympathetic Nervous System.
At that point – with a calm nervous system – you not only create the opportunity for a coherent heart, but you get to fully access the wisdom of the heart.
A wisdom that allows you to tap into a plethora of information held within the unified quantum field.
Drawing to you those “ah-hah” thoughts.
To deeper intuition.
To simple solutions for seemingly complex situations.
And now, my final word.
Do yourself a HUGE favour and spend the 10-mins it takes to turn the dial up on your wisdom, if you are experiencing anxiety or the equivalent.
Then let me know how you go.
Let me know if Version 1.0 (with anxiety), is not quite as wise as Version 2.0; after just 10-mins of “work”.
And, if you need more convincing, just send me an email and I will have another crack at convincing you. 😉
Have a splendid day and a week where you “tap” into your Greatness.
Take care.
Carl
Quotable QUOTE:
If you make small sub-optimal decisions (due to a hijacked mind), they eventually add up to you being completely “off course”. Carl Massy
(Author of 18 Ways We Make Life WAY Harder Than It Needs To Be)
PS: Have you read or listened to this book yet? 18 Ways We Make Life WAY Harder Than It Needs To Be