Awareness

Venice Beach

Anxiety is caused by thought.  Our thoughts consist of frightening images which arise from our belief structure, which has been built through conditioning since birth.  We believe our thoughts because they represent the only reality that we know.

For example, the following thoughts may cause anxiety:

I am not good enough.
Nobody loves me.
I am alone.
I am afraid of cancer.
I am unattractive.
I do not fit in.
Everybody is looking at me.
Bad things always happen to me.
And so on.

Our conditioned belief system generates a negative thought.  That thought causes an emotional response, our body tightens up, we may start to sweat, our hearts beat faster.  We become scared and may become angry.  The negative thought attracts other thoughts, perhaps memories of similar experiences where we were not good enough.  The thoughts take on a life of their own.  Thought breeds emotion, which breeds more thought and so on in a never ending cycle.

We can ease our anxiety by stopping believing that our thoughts are true or valuable.

How do we move from a life based on thought to one based on presence, which puts us in harmony with the Infinite Energy Source?

We start by bringing our awareness to our thoughts.  Awareness is simply attention without judgment.  We bring our attention to our thoughts (i.e., watch them), without judgment of any kind.  We don't judge them as good or bad, helpful or destructive.  We merely observe them.  We observe without judgment every thought that we have.  The mere act of observance causes our thoughts to dissipate and moves us into presence.  In presence we experience the peace, love and joy which is our very essence.

Let's bring our attention to presence.