Why is Anxiety such a Worry?

We live in an era where we are bombarded with news of natural disasters, terrorist attacks and world events that threaten our peace and security. These are streamed to us electronically 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Fear is a natural human response to enable us to deal with threatening or dangerous situations. Our brains are hard-wired to keep us safe. When we perceive something that is threatening our safety our bodies go into action. Adrenaline gets pumped into the bloodstream and muscles.

There are times in life that I like to call 'trapeze moments', when you need to let go of one thing before reaching out and grabbing the next. The scary bit is the 'mid-air' bit between the two. What if you misjudge it? Do you even have a safety net?

Let's look at it from a different perspective. Metaphorically speaking, what experience do you have on a trapeze? Have you trained? Have you been here before? What was that like? Scary? Exhilarating? How did it work out? Did you successfully fly through the air and grab hold of the next trapeze or did you land in the safety net?

During the first few years of life the ability of a mother to be attuned to the needs of her infant is crucial to their development. Failure at the early stages to create a sense of safety results in insecure attachment as research by theorists such as Bowlby and Winnicott tells us. However, from a secure attachment to a primary caregiver the child learns how to build relationships and feel safe in the world.  To provide a safe environment a parent needs to create boundaries – to be mindful of when the child is going too far and may hurt themselves or when they need to be encouraged to try new things.

Eating Breakfast - A bowl of ‘fruit and fibre’. 

The first thing I did was lift out a raisin. I looked at it, examined it from all angles, felt the weight of it as I moved it from one hand to another. The texture, how hard it was. I then tasted it with my tongue which registered a slight sweet taste. I put it in my mouth and felt it sitting on my tongue. I moved it around my mouth and felt it softening. I squished it slightly with my teeth and noticed the taste more, how soft it was becoming.