Healing the anxiety gap

Learn to live on the razor edge of the Eternal Now

Today, anxiety is at an all time high, not least because of the exponential increase in information, much of it negative.

Anyone who has observed their own changing life circumstances, and the lives of others around them, will have seen that there is much turbulence in the minds of most people everywhere today.  Much stress and anxiety, much inner and outer chaos.

Doom laden thoughts are rife all over social media and mainstream media.

Will the global economy collapse tomorrow?  Will ‘terrorists’ invade our country?  Will my children be safe?  Is the food I’m eating free from harmful toxins?

Basic day-to-day worries are on the increase due to the rising instability of economic world markets and unsettling geo-political changes including war and conflict… all magnified by the media!

Insane energy price hikes, inflation and many more unpleasant creations of human unconsciousness are converging to create what appear to be insurmountable challenges.

Certainty has been replaced by uncertainty.

Peace has been replaced by constant fear… fear of ‘the future’.

Indeed, our advancements in technology have largely outstripped our current level of consciousness — a precarious place to be!

In today’s ultra fast-paced world with endless amounts of data streaming into our minds, many people are overwhelmed and overburdened with ‘data’, most of it utterly useless and dysfunctional.

Like Pavlov’s dogs, we salivate everytime a new thought/stimulus comes into our mind-stream — and the constant pinging of our high tech devices is only making things worse as information travels at light speed across all our synced devices!

Selfies (“look at me”) and social media gurus (“look at me”) abound, as does the increase in porn addiction, gaming, ‘doom scrolling’, trolling and God only knows what else. Polarised opinions descend into vitriolic ‘ad hominem’ attacks on comment threads on Facebook and Twitter.

These fractures of the mind, of human consciousness, are nothing new - but they have been amplified. Massively.

So, what is the remedy?

More rules, more regulations made by ‘authority figures’ and our governments?  Surely not…

It is a spiritual law that when we control the freedom of others in order to stay ‘safe’, we simultaneously put ourselves in cages that are hard to break out of.

There are, thankfully, real solutions at hand for the person willing to think outside the box and go against the grain of human unconsciousness trying to pull us all along.

The Universe does not present us with challenges without giving us solutions!

Suffering, and the illusion of time

The ego’s world is fragmentary and illusive – and it seeks to constantly protect itself by seeking to change the external, anything and anyone outside of itself is ‘the problem’.  It never looks at itself.

The whole essence of Zen consists of walking along the razor’s edge of the Eternal Now, so that no problem, nothing that is not Who You Are in your essence, can survive in you.

If you are totally present, all (outer) problems dissolve automatically. Suffering always needs the illusion of time.

Remember this: The mind — YOUR mind — cannot cope with the future.

Your mind has been conditioned to dwell on the past or project into the future – if it’s good, then you have hope, if it’s bad, you have worry or anxiety.

Thoughts about the future create an ‘anxiety gap’ because the future isn’t real, except for being a thought in your head.

Entire industries have been built on the basis of ‘solving’ your projected anxieties and worries. Health insurance, home and car insurance, critical life cover, and so on… all of these things bring the illusion of peace but can never really take away the underlying problem – which is the mind itself.

Be like the mighty ant

If you want to find the positive in life, you need to become like the humble yet mighty ant, and learn to sift the sugar from the sand. You must learn to find ‘truth’ in a world of paradoxes, rabbit holes and dead-ends.

Thankfully, in parallel to the proliferation of information that causes a deep restlessness in the collective, are real opportunities to evolve beyond it.

There are many more authentic yoga and meditation classes online and offline, much more so than before. Although there will always be charlatans in any industry, we can seek out those who are committed to the true wellbeing of those they serve.

Rather than mindlessly reading the newspaper to and from your way to work, try something different. You can decide where to place your attention, if you become alert and conscious, rather than habitual in your nature.

I remember when “Metro”, a free London newspaper launched many years ago. There was - and is - nothing ‘free’ about it.

Today, returning to London after 10 years, it’s still filled with advertising, and the mainstream ‘low vibration’ stories are designed to hook your attention and whitewash your mind.

Instead of reading the news (which, contrary to popular belief, isn’t a sign of being ‘civilised’ or ‘educated’!), there are so many other options.

However, habit means you reduce your options. You keep choosing the same thought patterns, and so you don’t notice the options that lie outside of your own frequency emanations.

Unless you find yourself living below the breadline (a tough place to be!), you can begin anew, and choose to wisely invest in your own self-development.

This substack is another way to invest and commit to your own evolution :)

In the rest of this article, I cover dealing with core habits and your environment, how and when to check in with yourself, and the key question that unlocks the door to real and lasting change, removing the blocking energies (thoughts, beliefs, limitations etc). Thanks for your support.