If you suffer from any form of anxiety or depression or if you know someone who does, this post will show you a three step formula to cure it and live free from these feelings forever without using drugs or going to therapy.
There are three phases to the process:
Phase 1: Understanding the true cause of anxiety and depression
Phase 2: Understanding a true solution that really works
Phase 3: Making the solution into a lifelong habit
This solution is based on many of the latest findings from recent scientific research, but that alone does not make it effective. Many of the ideas here are dramatically different than those you will find in many solutions presented in the media and in advertising campaigns for prescription medications. So if you are willing to stay open to some different ideas, I suggest simply try them out and discover for yourself how well this solution can work for you.
Phase 1: Understanding the true cause of anxiety and depression
What is the opposite of anxiety and depression? Your first answer might be “feeling normal” but that doesn’t tell us much because everyone’s normal is different. Let’s try out this definition:
The opposite of anxiety and depression is happiness.
Wouldn’t you say this is true? On one side of our experience we feel forms of anxiety or depression and on the other, we feel forms of happiness, with most people’s lives being a mix of ups and downs between the two, right? So if we are to cure anxiety and depression, we need to know what causes us to have those feelings instead of the opposite; instead of happiness.
Since 1963 scientists have been measuring the energy fields that surround and flow though our bodies every moment. If we think back, we can remember that anytime we felt happy and excited, our attention was noticing this flowing of energy. We were open to new possibilities in these moments. Some of the latest studies suggest that happiness is simply noticing this flowing of energy of our body’s natural energy field. That’s it.
So anytime we are experiencing continual feelings that are less than happiness (i.e. anxiety and depression), it is a result of our inability to notice the flowing of energy of our body’s energy field in those moments. Our attention is simply being focused on something else.
Anxiety and depression are a result of two patterns of thinking that sometimes limit our awareness of the energy flowing through our body’s energy field. In other words, anxiety and depression are caused by our brain distracting our attention from the flowing of energy of our energy field and focusing it instead on one of two patterns of thoughts.
So what are these two thought patterns?
Whenever you experience anxiety, your brain is focusing your attention on thoughts about the future that are negative.
Whenever you experience depression, your brain is focusing your attention on thoughts about the past that are negative.
If you’re not feeling anxious or depressed right now, think back to a time when you were and you will discover this to be true.
This habit of your brain focusing your attention away from the energy flowing though your body’s energy field in the moment, and focusing it on either negative thoughts about the future or negative thoughts about the past, is the cause of anxiety or depression.
If this habit were not there, your attention would be free to focus on anything you chose to, including the energy flowing through your energy field which would result in you feeling happy instead of feeling anxious or depressed.
Phase two: Understanding a true solution that really works
A true solution that works to fix any problem is one that addresses the true cause of the problem. We all know this.
So if anxiety and depression are caused by our attention focusing on these two habits of thinking, then the solution is obvious isn’t it? The solution is to let go of these habits and create new ones.
What drug companies and some therapists might not want you to believe, is that this is completely within your power to do, again I might add, without drugs or therapy.
In fact, if you believe that it is not within your power to cure your anxiety or depression without drugs or therapy or that it is not possible to cure it at all, then you will never look for any other solutions. So opening yourself up to the possibility that it is within your power to do, is a crucial step in you allowing it to happen.
It is completely within your ability to do to let go of the habit of your attention focusing on these thought patterns, and to create new habits that will focus your attention instead on the energy of your body’s energy field in the moment. The first step is to understand what to do, and then the next step is phase three, making the new pattern into a habit.
So to start this, please answer this question:
In which area of your life do you most experience anxiety or depression, in the area of money, people, health or art?
Art is the area of your life that represents what you love to do most, even if it’s not “artistic” like painting or music, but it’s simply what you love to do most. This could be, being a parent, water skiing, or anything that is what you love to do most now.
If you’re not sure about your answer, just pick one and you can always go back and do the next steps with a different area of life.
Step 1) Now we’ll start curing your anxiety or depression. For the area of life you came up with in the first question, now we’ll begin moving up through five levels of happiness.
If you are feeling anxious or depressed about something, you aren’t able to feel happiness at all. The five levels of happiness represent the neurological shifts your brain has to make for you to experience higher and higher levels of happiness. So moving from anxiety or depression up to a level one level of happiness can feel like a major jump. Then if you’d like to feel even more happiness with this thing or in this area of your life, you can move to levels two, three, four and five.
You can make these shifts simply by following the steps here. Again, you will be able to feel more happiness immediately when you make these shifts, but in order for you to cure your anxiety or depression, it will require that you make using these neurological shifts into a habit. We’ll talk about that in phase three.
As you think about the area of life where you experience the most anxiety or depression, please ask yourself this question:
How is this feeling now?
If you answered with something positive like fine or happy or excited, then move on to step two. If you answered with anything less than feeling good, then please ask yourself this question:
What’s the smallest thing I can and am willing to do that would allow me to feel excited about this right now?
Please write down any answer you get that comes to you effortlessly. If you don’t get an answer effortlessly, then move to step two and we’ll deal with it there. If you did get an effortless answer, go ahead and do whatever action you came up with and enjoy feeling happy at level one.
Step 2) Now as you think about that area of life, please ask yourself this question:
What must I be assuming is not possible in order to feel this way?
Once you get an answer to that question, then let go of this assumption and allow yourself to feel what it would feel like to know that it is possible now. Simply decide to let the assumption go and feel the energy of knowing it is possible now. If this seams challenging, ask yourself:
How would it feel to be absolutely certain this is possible now?
And then let yourself feel what that would feel like. If you are able to do this easily, then enjoy feeling happy at level two with this area or your life. If this didn’t feel easy, then move to step three.
Step 3) Now as you think about that area of life, please ask yourself these questions allowing your brain to come up with an answer to each one:
How am I not experiencing myself as the leader of this area of my life now; what am I focusing on instead?
Once you get an answer to that question, please ask yourself this question:
What must I be assuming this could reveal about me in order to feel this way?
Once you get a answer to this question, then let go of this assumption and allow yourself to feel what it would feel like to be the leader of this area of your life now. Simply decide to let the assumption go and feel the energy of what it would feel like to know you are the leader of this area of your life right now. How does that feel now?
In taking these steps, you are changing your brain. You are reversing the patterns of anxiety and depression and creating new connections inside your brain that will allow your attention to more easily focus on the energy flowing through your body’s energy field instead of on the thoughts causing you anxiety or depression. Anytime you feel anxious or depressed, or if you just want to feel a higher level of happiness with something, you can take these three steps to feel better immediately. If you want to cure your anxiety or depression forever, all that’s required is that you develop these steps into a habit. There are two additional levels of happiness which you can experience beyond level three, but we’ll save those for another time.
Phase 3: Making the solution into a lifelong habit
Think of your brain like a muscle. If you wanted to get really good at typing, or if you already are, you would know that it requires you to first learn where to put your fingers, then where all the letters are on the keyboard and then you need to repeat using this knowledge enough times that your hands do it automatically. The repetitions are required because that’s how your muscles learn. You simply do enough correct repetitions of any action, and your muscles will remember how to do it without you even having to think about it.
This is the same process you can use to cure anxiety and depression. Your brain works very much like the rest of your muscles when it comes to remembering thought patterns. Do enough correct repetitions of any thought pattern, and your brain will do it without you even having to consciously direct it.
In fact, this is exactly how anxiety and depression work. Your brain has simply done so many repetitions of focusing your attention on negative thoughts about the future or the past, that it can feel like you don’t even have any control over it. It can feel like you sitting down at a computer to send an email and your fingers just type. This means that your brain is awesome at remembering how to focus your attention. Now, to cure your anxiety or depression, you are simply giving your brain a different pattern to get good at.
So how many repetitions will it take? This is a great question. If you are great at typing, riding a bike, drawing, playing a sport or a musical instrument, think about how many repetitions you had to do to get good at it. Depending on the skill, it might vary. One important factor is that doing correct repetitions is important. The mess ups don’t really help that much. In teaching music lessons, I’ve found that most skills on a music instrument can be completely memorized with 100 repetitions or less. It’s not really that important how many repetitions it takes for you to cure your anxiety or depression. What is really important is that you A) know that each new repetition is one step towards you living happier forever, B) that you continue to feel positive results along the way and C) that you continue to complete the repetitions needed for happiness to become your brain’s new habit.
So how do we do it? You can do repetitions of the three steps in any way you like. You can do them only when you are feeling anxious or depressed, or you can decide to simply practice them everyday.
I recommend drawing out a grid with 100 boxes, then for each time you run though the three steps, mark an “X” in one of the boxes. Once all 100 boxes are filled, it is almost guaranteed you will have developed them into a new habit, and it may happen much sooner than that. It might be fun to watch your anxiety and depression disappearing with each new box you put an “X” in!
-Andy
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