What is Anxiety? Scientia Est Potentia…

Anxiety Treatments

By Dave Lucas / Nov 4, 2017

Scientia Est Potentia is the latin phrase often translated as...

..."Knowledge is Power"

More accurately it means:

"Skill is Might!"

It alludes to the idea that...

...when we develop skill, we no longer have to fear.

We see a similar idea expressed by this article's quote:

"Knowledge Drives Out Fear"

I just love this quote.

It reminds us that when we understand spiders, we do not need to fear them.

In so many ways, that is how life works:

When we increase our wisdom and knowledge in a particular area,
...when we really understand how something works,
...or how to achieve a key result,
...we no longer need to worry about things going wrong.

This is a lesson we also learn in martial arts.

When we are aware of our surroundings, we are safe,...

...as we aren't surprised by attacks and can remove ourselves from harm, before harm even gets near us.

The same applies to anxiety.

The Worst Kind of Fear

The worst kind of fear is:

Fear of Fear
Or Anxiety about Anxiety.

BUT...

When we understand anxiety,...

...how it works.
...how to deal with it.

It loses its power over us.

We no longer fear it.

We simply conquer it.

In this section we are going to...

...provide you with an understanding of anxiety.
What it is.
How it works.

You will understand what you are dealing with...

... And the first step in your journey of...

...liberation from anxiety...

...will have begun.

1. Anxiety the Basics

Survival Mastery has an excellent infographic which explains what anxiety is:

Source: http://survival-mastery.com/

As you can see,...

...your brain basically goes into high alert.

You experience fear...

...and the brain runs away with the fear.

The Key Difference Between
Fear and Anxiety

The key difference between fear and anxiety is:

Fear is based on a threat in your immediate environment
Anxiety is based on an imagined threat

So you may be afraid of...

...a spider crawling up your arm now.

But anxious about...

...a spider crawling in your bed tonight.

This what makes anxiety so hard to deal with...

...and paradoxically... so easy to deal with.

Anxiety is all in the mind...

2. Anxiety is a Brain Software Program

Anxiety is essentially software in your brain gone wrong.

Did you know, your brain actually runs software?

It is called Human Software.

You can even write code for your brain.

Wow!

Now anxiety, is like a computer bug in your brain.

Or do we call it a brain bug...

The first ever software bug. They found an actual bug in the computer.

What we have to do is fix this brain bug.

So, what is does the Anxiety Software Program look like?

It's surprisingly simple:

The Anxiety
Human Software Program

Scan your life looking for things that can go wrong.
When you find something that can go wrong... Use your imagination to visualise the worst possible thing happening.
Emotionally respond to what you imagined... really really get into the fear and the panic.
As you feel this fear and panic, imagine yourself doing everything possible to deal with the situation… but nothing works… no matter how hard you try…
Also imagine yourself trying to prevent this situation… and nothing you do… stops it from happening…
Go back to step 2 and repeat... steps 2 to 6 OVER and OVER and OVER again… each time let the emotion get a little stronger
If you really want to torture yourself... Go back to step 1 and repeat.. after all… why have anxiety in one part of your life... when you can have it in every part of your life (NOT!!!)