anxiety is the avoidance of fear

I think Sam is very smart but her videos are so difficult to grasp in terms of implementing her advice. One video that was inspiring was this one:



Sam explains that 'anxiety is the avoidance of fear'. It took me a while to understand this statement but I think she's right. I know that my brain is very scared and frightened ... perceiving danger ... probably internal threats (health anxiety) as opposed to external threats (social or environmental situations). The root cause of the anxiety/fear isn't apparent ... I feel the emotions but with no identifiable source ... perhaps the source has gone and the anxiety/fear is stuck in a virtual loop.

I try to allow the anxiety and fear and now tell my brain that I am safe and that there is nothing to fear. However, the amygdala doesn't understand language. Helmut says dancing is a way to communicate to the amygdala that "I am safe" in a way it understands.

I wish I could stand in the fear and prove to my brain that I'm not in danger. How do I stand in the fear if the source/trigger doesn't exist? What is your take on Sam's video? This is my take/thoughts: Do you think that chronic fear - when trapped in the mind-body - needs to come out and that symptoms are a way to frighten us? By frightening us we allow the locked-in fear to escape i.e. energy cannot be destroyed so it's got to be transferred out. Perhaps that's what the symptoms are there for i.e. to remove the fear by experiencing the emotion. Thus in allowing the emotion i.e. the fear from the symptoms we reduce it's energy and any resistance will compound the symptoms. The crux is that we need to feel (allow) the fear in a neutral way and engage in life. That is the solution to This is how I understand Sam's video. It's so deep but it makes sense to me.

 

The cruix is: stop fearing the physical sensations of fear to feel them. In other (shorter and less psych nerd out videos) she explains that fear often covers up other emotions eg. rage or anger. Taking the sting out of fear makes those more accessible without having to keep excavating your past life etc. However, this is just one of the elements she suggests we feel - other times she reminds us to feel everything. Nothing is off limits.

 

Whew! Sam really is hard-core. Personally, she speaks to me— But just like you, I’m not always sure how, exactly. lol

I’ve been slowly listening to her videos, getting a big picture of her thoughts. To me, they really speak of internal family systems therapy, which I had the privilege of doing recently for three years.

The premise is: you have a Self— with a capital S. This is the wise, whole Self part of you. (You could say it’s divine or eternal.) And if the Self witnesses and validates the pain, grief or fear that the other parts of you have experienced, it heals you.

When we are kids, we need our parents to survive. If they violate our trust, or hurt us, we still need them. But we have to do something with the hurt and angry feelings. Or else we will be so conflicted we can’t go on. So we make a part (not as drastic as Cybil, not a split personality, but sort of). And this part takes on all the pain, fear, anger of that betrayal and holds it in another place in your brain. In the subconscious. This freed you up to carry on at the time.

As time goes on, you might have 3 or 10 or you name it, any number of these parts, who came into being during traumatic experiences.

What Sam is saying is these parts are expressing their feelings through our bodies now, at this late date. It’s their fear. It’s their pain. They are stuck in time. They don’t know time has passed. They are just trapped holding all of those feelings. With TMS, they are finally letting this pain/fear/anger out. And all we have to do witness their feelings. Validate them. Don’t make them hide this burden anymore. It’s the same thing you would do for an abused child who came to you for help. Just love them. Let them feel their feelings while you hug them.

I think that’s what Sam’s talking about, if I’m getting it right.

It’s really a different perspective on what symptoms are. And it’s hopeful, if you ask me.