Welcome to the first episode of the PEACE with Anxiety Podcast, where your host Irene Evangelou sets the stage for a transformative exploration of anxiety's true nature. In this enlightening discussion, discover a paradigm shift that reframes anxiety not as a disorder but as a natural response to life's challenges. Irene discusses the physiological symptoms, biological responses, and common questions surrounding anxiety, urging listeners to separate themselves from its grip. Embrace a new perspective that acknowledges anxiety as a survival mechanism, not a deviation from the norm. This episode promises a journey of self-discovery, resilience-building, and understanding, paving the way for peace and confidence amidst life's natural responses. Tune in, be present, and remember you're not alone on this path toward peace with anxiety.

1. FREE ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠High-functioning Anxiety Survival Guide⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
2. Check out the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠High-functioning Anxiety Blueprint
3. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Ask me your anxiety-related questions⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for a future episode.
4. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠1:1 Reset & Reclaim Hypnotherapy⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Program. A 4-week journey to help you gently break down the Eldest Daughter conditioning that’s been running your life, and reclaim your voice, your needs, and your sense of self.
5. Subscribe and Leave a Review

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠DISCLAIMER⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠: All content here is for informational purposes only. This content does not replace the professional judgment of your own mental health provider. Please consult a licensed mental health professional for all individual questions and issues.

You're listening to the Peace With Anxiety Podcast. I am your host, Irene Evangelo, anxiety counselor and clinical hypnotherapist.

I'll be coming to you every week to share actionable tips, simple strategies and useful resources to help you break free from high function anxiety.

We'll be covering how to recognize and understand your anxiety, strategies to change your thoughts and feelings, ways to implement long lasting change.

If you are trying to overcome people pleasing behaviors, navigate anxiety, living in self doubt or something else keeping you stuck, then you are in the right place. I know that you are ready to get to the next level of your life feeling free, calm, confident and in control. So let's get started.

Hello and welcome to the very first episode of Peace With Anxiety Podcast.

I wanted to start with this episode today to set the tone of what this podcast is all about and to help you understand what anxiety is and where it comes from.

So the main message with this podcast is that anxiety is doesn't have to make you feel stuck or hold you back from living the life you want to live or doing the things you love or dream of doing, or just be who you want to be. And I don't want you to just learn how to manage your anxiety symptoms.

You know, you can learn to understand what anxiety is saying to you and learn the tools to help you move past anxiety faster.

And I wish I could tell you that you don't ever have to feel anxious again in your life, but that would not be realistic and wouldn't really serve you in the long term. And hopefully after listening to this episode, you will maybe change your perspective around your relationship with anxiety.

So the first thing I want to encourage you to do, instead of viewing anxiety solely through the lens of disorders, I want you to be open to the idea that anxiety is a natural response to a distressing experience or event. Ok, I'm gonna say that again because it's really important. Anxiety is a natural response to to a distressing experience or event.

All anxiety is is our body's way of signaling potential threats or dangers, preparing us to respond and to protect ourselves. So picture it as an eternal alarm system that activates in the face of stressors. Now, anxiety is incredibly common. It always was and always will be.

In fact, it's a universal human experience. We all feel anxious at times and it is completely normal.

Whether it's the anticipation of a big presentation or feeling nervous before a social event, or its financial stress, or maybe saying no to a family member. These are everyday instances of anxiety. However, what often complicates the experience is the fear of anxiety itself.

The fear of anxiety can create a loop where the worry about experiencing anxiety becomes a stressor in itself.

You may fear the physical or emotional symptoms of anxiety that lead to a heightened state of vigilance and awareness, which can ironically, trigger more anxiety. Now, another truth about anxiety is that it exists on a spectrum.

What might be a normal level of anxiety for one person can be overwhelming for another. There is no one size fits all experience.

So to make more sense of them, some physiological symptoms of anxiety are raising or pounding heartbeat, sweating, changes in your body temperature.

So you might feel cold, feeling dizzy, feeling a sense of doom or terror, chest pain and tightness, throat tightness, tingling, numbness in your arms and legs, muscle spasm, changes in breathing, palpitation, blurred vision, distorted hearing and weakness. These symptoms are just a direct response to the way our brains and body react to a perceived risk or threat.

So anxiety is triggered externally by a stimulus in your environment or a person or an environment. And they can also be triggered internally by thoughts or feelings such as self doubt, perfectionism, or even past traumatic experiences.

Also, bodily sensations like an elevated heartbeat after running or rushing can cause anxiety. So what exactly happens when anxiety takes hold? It's all about the brain and the body preparing for a fight or flight response.

When triggered, your brain releases epinephrine and cortisol into your bloodstream. When these chemicals are released into the body, they constrict the blood vessels, preparing your body for height and awareness.

Your airways open up, allowing for increased oxygen intake, your muscles tense in preparation for action, your pupils dilate to enhance vision, and your heart rate undergoes a dynamic shift. So have you ever asked yourself where anxiety comes from? Was I born with anxiety? Is it part of who I am? Or am I just an anxious person?

Now, if you have worked with me or follow me on social media, then you know that the answer to this question is no, you are not your anxiety. You are so much more than your anxiety.

One of the things that I help my clients with is to actually help them to learn how to separate themselves from anxiety. And this makes sense if you think about the world we're currently living in. Everything around us is causing us anxiety.

For example, many people struggle financially, many people are suffering. And with a massive rise of social media, we know what is happening everywhere at any time.

We are exposed to so much more with images and videos, and that can paint a very negative, negative, stressful and fearful experience of the world around us. And because as humans, we tend to focus more on the negative news to ensure our survival.

We are constantly getting triggered by these events that happen on the other side of the world, but we tend to feel them as though we experiencing them in real life. Now another example is the pressure to achieve more sooner to work more. For many people, their workday hours start before they go to work.

They wake up and they check their emails or they continue to work well after the end of the workday. They may try to be everything to everyone and they always try to be more of everything.

And they tend to either isolate themselves to manage the never ending responsibilities, or they spread themselves thin and leave no time for themselves. Now, if you're listening to this podcast, I am sure many of you can relate to this. And at times I certainly know I can.

And when I'm experiencing this, I have to remind myself to pause and take a breath, stay in the present moment and just say to myself that it is okay to leave something for the next day. I hope now it makes sense that our environment is anxiety inducing. It is not you. There is nothing wrong with you.

Everyone living in this environment is vulnerable to these triggers.

And what we can do is learn to understand where they're coming from and building our resilience and growing our confidence in our ability to respond to these triggers. Now here is one important thing to understand. At the core of anxiety, there is fear.

When we're anxious, we are experiencing a spectrum of fear from mild stress and worry to intense panic, panic and even horror. You might be afraid of repeating past actions or try to control what might happen in the future.

So what we're going to discuss in this podcast is a paradigm shift. Anxiety, fears and worries are not isolated disorders, but are deeply connected to real life valid concerns.

These concerns often stem from experiences or events possibly distressing, either on a personal or environmental level. So instead of framing anxiety as a malfunction or deviation from the norm, let's acknowledge it as a natural response that has evolved over time.

It's a mechanism our mind has developed to cope with stressors. So from now on, when we talk about anxiety in this podcast, we are not referring to the psychiatric diagnosis like generalized anxiety disorder.

We are not labeling these feelings as mental disorders. Instead, we are discussing a common, natural, normal response to life challenges. A response that has a purpose and significance in our journey.

So if there is one thing you get away from this episode today, I hope it is that your experiences are valid and by embracing them, you can create a sense of peace and understanding within yourself. I hope this episode empowers you with the understanding that what you're feeling is not a weakness, it's part of being human.

It's a testament to your resilience and adaptive nature. The symptoms you may experience are part of a sophisticated survival mechanism that has evolved over time to protect us from harm.

And in future episodes, we'll continue to talk about the complexities of anxiety that align with this perspective, and we're gonna share strategies and insights to help you find pace and confidence during these natural responses. Until then, take a moment to be present, be kind to yourself, and find comfort in the knowledge that you're not alone on this journey.

Thank you for listening to the Peace With Anxiety podcast.

If you found any value in today, I would really appreciate if you would leave me a review you and share this episode on your Instagram story tagging me at Irene the Anxietytherapist. Also, make sure you subscribe to this podcast so you don't miss an episode. All the links are found below in the show notes.

Thank you for listening and I look forward to seeing you the next episode.