Anxiety Support Group
Anxiety is a physical condition marked by intense and persistent feelings of distress, fear, angst or dread. General anxiety caused by routine day-to-day stresses usually passes quickly and is experienced by almost everyone at one time or another. However, such feelings that linger over time and are very difficult to cope with, and which lack a clear cause, may indicate...
i've been triggering like a kid with a cap gun lately. i'm spending at least as much time lost in flashbacks as i am spending in the here and now. my own flashbacks tend to daisy chain. i can go from a garden bed to academic debates to family dysfunction to trauma in foreign countries to . . . to . . . to . . . ya know, ya know. . . the four f's in progress. . . which f shall i use today? freeze? flight? fight? fawning? i've been waffling somewhere between "fight" and "fawn." sigh. . . why can't i be normal?
today's read from "meditations for people who worry" is resonating for me. thought i'd give the meditation the extra affirmation of typing out to share here. i find typing to be a very meditative activity when my hands aren't hurting too badly. so far, i'm having a good hand day.
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taking responsibility
i enjoy my wrinkles and regard them of badges of distinction. i've worked hard for them! ~maggie kuhn
maggie kuhn was an interesting and challenging woman. she always was a study in contrasts and surprises.when i knew her, she looked like a petite, delicate cameo, and she was one of the most radical people i have ever met. the maggie i knew always took responsibility for her life.
taking responsibility for our lives is not easy in this culture. we are trained to be victims. at some very subtle level, no matter how we have turned out, it is someone else's fault --parents, of course, are always a good focus, and teachers, relatives, school, the church, and the world in general get their share of the blame, too.
it's important to remember that we cannot help what has happened to us, and many of us have had bad to horrible experiences. if we want to spend our lives focusing on others and what they have done to us, we can look forward to a miserable life. whatever has happened to us is our experience. our experiences are the raw materials out of which we can shape a life. what we build with them is up to us.
when we recognize that we have worked hard for who we are --wrinkles and all-- we are on the road to being who we can be.
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she speaks of maggie kuhn as a name we should recognize. i didn't, so i looked her up. thought i'd share what i found.
https://www.womenofthehall.org/inductee/maggie-kuhn/
just sharing. . .
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I haven't written in my diary on my computer since May because I thought that my computer was dying. I got away from writing but my computer is hanging in there. I think that I will start writing in it again. It's so therapeutic.
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First, I hope everyone is doing well, and continuing to fight that good fight! Keep up the great work on yourselves; I'm rooting for all of you!So, I started doing therapy at the beginning of the year, when I was in my most depressed state, but with my therapist, I made big changes and steps in the right direction. But, over a month ago, she couldn't take my insurance anymore, and I had to stop...
I’ll look her up, too.
And fawning? I’ve not heard of that fourth “f” so I’ll have to look it up.
I’m sorry for the flashbacks, and the struggle to balance that and stay in the present is real.
I’m in a blessed but scary (uncertainty inherent to any change!) transition myself! Seeing how I was played as a victim and bearing witness to my soon to be ex spouse who has built an emotional life entirely on being a victim. Ok, that’s very over simplified, but this meditation was relevant to.me today. As they usually are. :) you’re like my little magic fortune teller sharing highly relevant meditations at the most relevant times. :). Thank you for that. Thanks, Arfie. :)
i'm not a natural fawner. the folks who know me start looking for the daggers in my pocket when i start fawning.
your description of perpetual victims is, indeed, over-simplified and perhaps even unkind, butttttttttttaaaaaaaaa. . . it is most assuredly not a lifestyle i covet. it is a traditional lifestyle in my own birth family and? ? ? plying therapy tools. healing hopes for all. no exceptions.
Congratulations, you've won my admiration for such an uplifting post and the edifying comment in regards to your post made. I'm not into replying and commenting to avatars and or animal figures, but I figured since you mention the "F" series of life, I figure you're in desperate need of a support system as many find consonance/solace in uplifting one another with their own two cents. After all, literature in the making is to uplift and edify everyone. I like to share in the making just like you and I admire those of old who have made a strong and continue to make a strong impact in our culture such as Maggie Kuhn. This is the first time I even hear of her and she is truly an inspiration for many of us to follow in her leading roles. She's sharp, a sharp tool in the shed of life. And I agree one grows to the fullness of their own self-realization just as are. I have found peace to be primordial and most valuable to me, as to help grounded and humble, to establish what most can consider normality in the life of the giver, a person who at the end of the day, gets to sleep in bed alone and wake up to see their own face in the reflection of their own self-realization, a peaceful face in a beautiful life full of hope and the fruits of the Holy Spirit... May my words be of comfort to you and yours at this time. God bless and it's good to reminisce about the past if it offers peace, and if not, it is best to let go. Best to you if not already.
i'm new to maggie kuhn's work, but i started life as a child prostitute. i was still in the biz when maggie kuhn started her most famous work in 1970. the further i get from my childhood and the less appealing i am to sexual predators, the happier i am. at 67, i'm almost old enough to be happy.