From Anxious to Aware: Living as Your Truest Self – Guest Blog by Jan Lundy
admin February 6th, 2009
It is my pleasure to have Janice Lynne Lundy here to guest blog. I thank you very much Janice for taking the time to come to my blog. If you have any questions or comments we’d love to hear from you. Enjoy!
The first time I wrote publicly about my journey through personal anxiety was within the pages of my new book, Your Truest Self. The second is here, today, with all of you. Surprised? I am, too, but delightedly so. And because anxiety can be a familial pattern, I’ve also walked this bumpy road with each of my three children, as well.
A diagnosis of anxiety/panic disorder by a naturopathic physician drove me kicking and screaming into uncovering my truest self. Our truest self is someone who is naturally peaceful, confident, joyful, and courageous. Someone who lives with equanimity, clarity of mind, and openness of heart, with compassion for one’s self and others. These qualities, or virtues, appear to be linked with “spirit”—our essence—and it is our life’s purpose to reclaim them and live as our whole and “holy” self. I came to understand, in fact, that I was not living as my truest self at all, as long as I allowed anxiety, fear, and worry to predominate my days. And they did.
‘So, what did you do to change all that?’ you might ask. Very simply, I stopped. I slowed down the pace of my life and began to look inward. More than anything I wanted to be a peaceful woman. I’d had enough of anxious living! To live in a healthy, new way must be our heartfelt desire if we hope to make the shift from anxious to “aware.” It has been a journey of ten or more years for me to make this shift. It was done gently, one small step at a time. I believe it can be so for any of us.
We can begin by educating ourselves, then implementing, practices that calm, nurture, and sustain us. In my book, I present twelve Transformational Truths for living, accompanied by a dozen “Peaceful Pauses” for embodying them. The third Truth, for example, presented with the assistance of New York Times’ bestselling author, Iyanla Vanzant is: I Choose Thoughts and Feelings That Honor My Sacred Self.
By learning to be our own “observer,” as this Truth espouses, we can begin to befriend our wild mind and subdue its swirling thoughts and emotions. We learn to calm ourselves with practices sourced in the world’s wisdom traditions, including: mindfulness, breath work, sacred movement or yoga, walking meditation, or prayer.
Over the years, I’ve experimented with many of these, eventually arriving at those that brought greater peace of mind and body. With newfound calm, came clarity, and my life took a dramatic turn for the better. With clarity, came insight and wisdom, and soon I found myself on a path of profound spiritual awakening. In time, my anxiety was transformed and, to this day, only pays a brief visit now and then.
My children are now 18-26, full-fledged adults, and we never stop dialoging about strategies for non-anxious living. They are gradually exploring the Truths for themselves (at mom’s urging, of course!) finding what works for them. They are observing, listening, and making powerful new life choices, one small step at a time. I see them becoming calmer, clearer, wiser. For that I am deeply grateful.
Today, it seems I best support my children’s ongoing healing journeys by offering them non-anxious presence. And, yet, I can only be as present to them as I am to myself. This means I must continue to do good “inner work”; accessing inner calm, confidence, and joy on a regular basis so that I can be of benefit to others. My heartfelt desire for myself, my children, and everyone I meet is that we will embrace our wholeness, and live as our truest selves — the divine and glorious beings we are meant to be.
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