What Is Anxiety? Why Do We Experience It?
In today’s fast-paced and unpredictable world, anxiety can arise easily and often. Many of us juggle demanding responsibilities, societal pressures, and internal expectations that leave us feeling overwhelmed. While anxiety can manifest for many reasons, it’s important to recognize that it’s not a sign of weakness, it’s a signal. A messenger pointing to a part of our system that needs understanding, regulation, or healing.
Common Causes of Anxiety
For most adults, anxiety is commonly tied to:
- Finances – fear of scarcity or instability.
- Relationships – fear of abandonment, rejection, or disconnection.
- Health – fear of illness or loss of vitality.
- Career – fear of failure, judgment, or not being “enough.”
These external triggers may vary, but anxiety often stems from an internal experience of fear, doubt, insecurity, or feeling helpless. For example, a parent may feel anxious about their child’s well-being. A professional may worry about job performance or losing their position. Someone in a relationship may feel afraid their partner might leave them. What triggers anxiety is deeply personal, yet the underlying emotional patterns often echo universal themes.
The Inner Landscape of Anxiety
At its core, anxiety is most often related to the self, that is, our perception of our worth, safety, and belonging. When we feel anxious, we are usually perceiving a threat whether real or imagined. This threat may activate feelings of:
- Being limited or powerless
- Insecurity or lack of confidence
- Disconnection or isolation
These states can lead to low self-esteem, chronic worry, and even hopelessness.
When someone feels isolated or alienated, they often withdraw further, believing they are not understood or relatable. Unfortunately, this deepens the cycle, allowing anxious thoughts to loop and grow without interruption. Without supportive social interactions, we miss opportunities to challenge those anxious beliefs—like realizing we can speak in public, or that others will accept us.
The Roots of Anxiety and Learned Emotional Patterns
Most of our emotional responses are learned and conditioned, shaped by early life experiences and the environment we grew up in. Apart from the two instinctive fears we're born with (fear of falling and loud noises), the rest are absorbed from those around us.
Our subconscious mind stores emotional patterns and reactions, and when we repeatedly respond to life in the same way, we reinforce those pathways. Over time, these reactions become automatic, unconscious, and we may no longer understand why we feel anxious in certain situations. But our body still reacts, and the brain interprets those sensations as danger. We call that anxiety.
Energetics of Anxiety: The Four Elements of Pressure
Our physical and mental systems are constantly shaped by four forces:
- Tension
- Stress
- Pressure
- Friction
These are part of the human experience and even necessary for growth. But when they are prolonged or excessive, the body and mind cannot process them effectively. The result? They become internalized as a threat. This contributes to a dysregulated nervous system, leading to chronic anxiety and emotional imbalance.
How to Begin Healing Anxiety
To reduce and ultimately resolve anxiety, it’s essential to support the entire system: body, mind, and spirit. This involves:
- Strengthening the glandular and nervous system
- Balancing the biochemistry of the body
- Cultivating a calm and neutral mental state
- Reconnecting with your sense of wholeness and inner trust
One powerful tool is the ability to shift focus. When we’re able to redirect our attention away from looping anxious thoughts and onto something neutral or grounding, we naturally reduce the intensity of the anxiety we are feeling. This is not denial, rather it's nervous system regulation.
The first step for many is simply learning to observe their anxious thoughts without judgment and gently guide their mind back to center.
Beyond Mental Solutions: A Holistic Approach
Conventional therapies, such as cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), focus on thought patterns, behaviors, and sometimes incorporate breathwork or somatic tools. These methods can be very helpful, but they often stop at the mental or behavioral level.
My approach goes deeper, addressing the subconscious programming that governs automatic emotional reactions, and including the spiritual dimension—the part of us that seeks connection, meaning, and divine trust. When you begin to truly trust yourself and your connection to something greater, your anxiety begins to ease. You no longer feel alone. You know that whatever life brings, you have the inner resources to navigate it.
Ancestral and Evolutionary Roots of Anxiety
Much of what we fear today has deep roots in our evolutionary biology. For example, fear of rejection often feels so intense because at one time, being rejected from the tribe could mean death. So, when we fear failure, judgment, or being seen as “less than,” our fight-or-flight system reacts as though our very survival is at stake.
It’s important to understand that this system is not broken, but it’s overactive due to modern life’s constant demands and perceived threats.
A Path to Wholeness: Transforming Anxiety into Empowerment
Anxiety is not who you are. It’s a temporary state that arises when your system feels overwhelmed or unsafe. By understanding its roots, working with your subconscious mind, regulating your nervous system, and reconnecting with your spiritual essence, you can move from fear to freedom.
Healing is possible. Wholeness is your natural state. And within you is the power to return home to yourself, one that is calm, confident, and connected.
Anxiety can feel isolating, but you don’t have to face it alone. Work with certified hypnotherapist Ramtin Pourvasei at ALOhypnotherapy in Newport Beach to calm your mind and find lasting relief through personalized hypnotherapy sessions.
Schedule a free consultation, and let’s design a healing approach that suits your unique needs.
Call us at (949) 287-3065 or visit www.ALOHypnotherapy.com to learn more.
