Anxiety is a bottom level emotion that shows up consistently and is difficult to manage. When your emotions are out of control, they can overwhelm you, obscure your reasoning, and keep you from the peace within you. Bottom level emotions like anxiety can feel like dread and create concern in response to unanticipated disasters, unpleasant situations, and trauma; your brain views specific items, things, or situations as threats, even when there is no actual risk.
As a way to manage anxiety, you may turn to spirituality to reconnect with peace. It is common to fall into the pattern of praying when you need something and developing a pattern of only going to a spiritual or religious place when in time of need. When your faith is unwavering, this can increase worry about the future and result in some people experiencing social isolation. A perspective to consider for this pattern development could be you’re being called to fulfill a spiritual responsibility to develop the soul and reduce the limiting beliefs that lead to anxiety.
Inviting spirituality and working with a spiritual therapist in Los Angeles has the potential to decrease the impact of anxiety in your life and help you build stronger bonds with those around you. It may motivate you to accomplish your goals and increase your overall satisfaction with life as well.
What is Spiritual Therapy & How It Can Reduce Anxiety Symptoms
Spiritual therapy for anxiety is a new form of therapy that takes into consideration a person’s spirituality when it comes to healing the psyche. That being said, spirituality can mean different things to different people, and its significance can play a different role depending on the person. Spirituality is a feeling of connection with something greater than your human form. It can be seen as a belief that there is more to life than the humanness that you may experience. This subjective phenomenon of spirituality can be experienced through religion, rituals, art, nature, energy, frequency, and/or a relationship with the Divine. Spirituality strives to cultivate inner calmness, peace, and direction. Through the work with a spiritual therapist in Los Angeles, you can go through the process of taking a step back to assess your own place in the world and reflecting on the major questions of life, such as your motivation, life history, and place in the world.
A Tool for Managing Stress & Anxiety with Spiritual Therapy
Since spirituality can be comforting in difficult circumstances when your anxiety is at an all time high, the duality is that it also offers peace when you surrender to the difficulty. When life gets challenging and overwhelming, it is normal to feel disconnected from the world and feel sucked into the limiting beliefs that your mind may create. Spirituality through rituals such as prayer or meditation offers a sense of connection and purpose to help you reground and tap into your heart center. The transition from your mind into your heart helps reduce anxiety by cutting down on the limiting beliefs. This brings clarity, compassion, and calmness.
Surrendering Anxiety through Gratitude
Gratitude is another spiritual therapy for anxiety that moves you from your mind into your heart. Research has shown when you focus on the positive aspects of your life during times of distress, it can reduce symptoms of anxiety and create stronger social connections. As a matter of fact, when you are anxious, cortisol levels increase. Cortisol is a stress hormone that is responsible for regulating blood sugar levels, blood pressure and immune function. When it is high, it can lead to negative health effects. Recent research has shown that using gratitude and positive affirmations during this time can dramatically reduce cortisol levels and build resilience, which in turn allows you to manage anxiety quickly. By focusing on the things that are going well in your life, you can shift your attention away from anxiety and reduce the attention on it.
Community Support and Connection to Reduce Isolation
When the voice in the head gets too loud, it can be crippling and cause you to isolate. During this time, reaching out to friends can cause shame and there may be limited emotions to respond to texts asking if you’re free to go out. This is where spirituality can be helpful since support and community are crucial components of spirituality. During high anxiety, it is important to be around people who are accepting and present without judgment. Participating in spiritual therapy for anxiety with a community who shares similar values and beliefs can provide a sense of belonging and support.
Many spiritual communities provide opportunities for people to share their experiences and lend a listening ear. By sharing whatever part of your experiences you’re comfortable with, you break the patterns of the limiting beliefs, gain new insights, and build resilience. All these components can help them manage your anxiety more effectively.
Mantras as Spiritual Theray to Reduce Anxiety
Mantras can be deeply supportive in reducing anxiety and silencing the limiting beliefs. A mantra is a word of a phrase that you repeat out loud or silently as a way to refocus the scattered thoughts. They can come from traditional texts, personal affirmations, or spiritual readings. When done consistently, this can increase your sense of grounding, relaxation, and calmness. Mantras are a powerful tool to command your mind. Here are 3 mantras used by spiritual therapists near you in Los Angeles at Shakti Therapy & Healing Services you can try to reduce anxiety symptoms and quiet the mind.
"Om Shanti" - "peace be with you"
It helps induce a sense of calmness and tranquility in the mind and body.
"I am safe and supported"
A personal affirmation to remind you that you are secure in the present moment. It can help to reduce feelings of fear or worry.
"All is well"
A reminder that everything will ultimately work out for the best. It can help promote a sense of peace and trust in the universe.
Meditation as a Way to Reconnect to Peace
When you feel anxious, it is a natural tendency to pull away, hide, or feel overwhelmed by the noise in the head. These natural tendency responses cement your fears and anxiety deep inside your body. The process of this is what leads to holding trauma in the body. Meditation is a powerful tool to decrease anxiety and help prevent trauma from building in the body. The goal with meditation is not how long you do it for, but how consistently you meditate. Meditation directly reduces anxiety symptoms by regulating the body’s stress hormone response, decreasing cortisol levels, and shifting the focus from the limiting beliefs to the present moment. When you increase awareness, you begin to observe the physical sensations in your body and invite breath to move the trauma out. Meditation as a form of spiritual therapy for anxiety and also brings you to the present moment, but also helps with long term gains of releasing trauma in the body.
In conclusion, spirituality is a powerful form of connection and tool that can reduce anxiety and awaken the inner peace within you. By connecting with a spiritual therapist at Shakti Therapy & Healing Services, you can build the sense of expansion through gratitude, community support, mantras, or meditation, you develop a sense of purpose and meaning beyond the human form. THe human form is responsible for limiting beliefs and anxiety symptoms. Through incorporating spiritual therapy and rituals in your daily life, you can increase your resilience in times of difficulty, surrender to the uncertainty of life, and experience peace in the middle of chaos.
You are a spiritual being having a human experience - it’s time to connect with the peaceful home
within you.
Ektha Aggarwal is an experienced licensed clinical social worker (LCSW) and Founder of Shakti Therapy and Healing Services.
Shakti Therapy offers a holistic and psychotherapeutic approach to help clients realize that we are an integral part of the vast and complex web of life - that the health of the whole is intimately connected with the health of the individual. Shakti Therapy combines both ancient Eastern and the most up to date scientific modalities, to create a basis of connection - mind to body, human to nature, individual to community, physical to spiritual, past to present to future.
To learn more about Shakti Therapy and Healing services, please visit www.shaktitherapyhealing.com or email Ektha at info@shaktitherapyhealing.