TIPS FOR HOW TO DEAL WITH FEELING OVERWHELMED BY STRESS AND ANXIETY

The Post You Don’t Want to Read if You Don’t Want to Find Out the Truth Behind Your Current Unhappiness

The Post You Don?t Want to Read if You Don?t Want to Find Out the Truth Behind Your Current Unhappiness
Today I woke up absolutely exhausted from the parties I attended this weekend and yet rather than staying half-asleep for the rest of the day I suddenly felt overly inspired to share with you my thoughts on a topic that’s been bugging me over the last couple of weeks.
Well, in my latest post I spoke about stress and anxiety, sharing with you my suggestions for how to stop feeling negative and emotionally overwhelmed. However, while listing all the tips and tricks I’ve learned over the years, I chose to skip talking about the first and foremost one. And you know happiness is not an ending point towards which you should be headed. Happiness is here. Happiness is now and the one single thing you should do is allow yourself to see it, feel it, and let yourself be seized by it. However, there is one big obstacle that’s standing in your way and obstructing you from really experiencing the joy of that very moment. Some pretty ‘full of himself’  and opinionated Mr., who keeps telling you what is right and what is wrong wrong.

Mr. Ego you know him, right?

Today while typing down this letter I feel emotionally lighter than even before, having finally come to the life changing realisation that every time I’ve gone through some sort of emotional roller-coaster, it’s been because of him. It seems that I’ve given Mr. Ego too much freedom to guide my actions and control my thoughts. But let’s start from answering the question: ‘What’s Ego?? Well, Ego sets the prism through which you see and understand life; it always feels lack at the present and anticipates potential abundance in the future. It keeps reminding you that you could have more and that you should strive for more; it tells you that the more success and material gains you have, the happier you’d eventually be. And while Ego’s always here, messing up with you at the present, it spends quite a lot of time staring at the past, trying to make sense of it and of all the situations that have downgraded it and made it suffer. It seeks ‘ultimate answers’ to trivial questions such as: ‘Why did she cheat on me? Was he better than ME?’, while of course striving to rectify itself by focusing on the future and wondering whether revenge would be enough: ‘Maybe you should get with someone she despises?’ he maliciously suggests. It’s a vicious circle of wants, goals, and ending points; a vicious circle of craving particular outcomes that would make it feel better about itself. It doesn’t care that each and every outcome and your very ability as a breathing human being to ‘experience it’ is the greatest reminder that you?’e here and that you are alive. Instead, it makes you incessantly draft new and more ambitious plans whose accomplishment will supposedly bring you closer to feeling truly happy. By asking you to constantly fuel it, EGO makes you a prisoner to its selfish needs and obstructs you from seeing the abundance of all that you already have today.  Just pause for a moment and remember the moment when you finally got the promotion you?ve always craved for? You feel a sudden wave of adrenalin, you shout with excitement, and celebrate! Then you snuggle in bed and start mulling over the situation: ‘Okay now you’re a supervisor, so what about the next milestone? Becoming a team manager of course!’ And all the joy based on what you’ve earned with hard work and dedication evaporates to leave enough space for another goal to be set in its place – one that will supposedly make you even happier. But will it? Becoming a manager means more responsibilities = less time for your loved ones = less time to enjoy the things that your TRUE SELF actually loves.

Ego is your Head/Thoughts formed by your past experiences, achievements, identities, beliefs. It asks you to associate yourself with all of the above and tricks you into letting your true nature dissolve (which ultimately is detached from any of you EGOCENTRIC thoughts). And just like that life turns into a game you should fear failure and rejection and at all time you should strive to be a winner. And by doing that you miss chances! Chances to invite the girl you like on a date and just say to yourself ‘No matter what her response might be I’d give it a go. She might end up being the One after all’.

‘Fear seems to have many causes. Fear of loss, fear of failure, fear of being hurt, and so on, but ultimately all fear is the ego’s fear of death, of annihilation. To the ego, death is always just around the corner. In this mind-identified state, fear of death affects every aspect of your life.’ Eckhart Tolle

Ego is such a cheeky b*****: it goes hand in hand with flattery and appreciation and derives hell
of a lot pleasure from them. No wonder why every time I’d enter a room full of people my attention would immediately go to the one who had blanked me. I?d approach them and do my best to engage in a conversation that would leave them with a positive impression of me. And if it all goes down as planned ? Mr. Ego will trick me into thinking that I’m great and that I should feel satisfied. That’s what Ego does to you. It needs constant validation and if not receiving one – it suffers and seeks other sources from which to derive ovation from. And do you know what happens when you choose to spend your night trying to impress someone? You miss out on being truly present and spent quality time with those who don’t need to be impressed and who are grateful for your very presence.
And what about when you feel attracted to someone? Well, all you crave for is an immediate justification that they like you back. But…
She didn’t text you back. How dare she?!
And you were so impatient that you gave up and texted her first.
‘You’re so dumb. You should have waited. You start telling yourself. Excuse me. Your Ego directs you to think.
Then you start again: ‘If she texts me back I’ll be content.’ In reality you won’t. You’d keep on seeking proof that you’re one they like the most. And if she doesn’t respond in the way you’d hoped you’re Ego would start downgrading her ‘Well, she wasn’t that pretty anyway’, while in reality probably that’s a cue that you two just don’t have the potential to click.
And it?s precisely the EGO that creates this image of ?Mr/Mrs Perfect. Perfect doesn?t exist. Perfect exists only in EGO?s phoney world, which says that you can always do better. Gosh, I can clearly recall saying to myself in the past ?No, I cannot date a boy like him. He is not smart enough, or he?s not ambitious enough. I deserve better?. Today I cannot even comprehend how driven by my EGO I was. In fact I didn?t deserve better. And without the EGO tricking us into thinking how significant and amazing we are, we would quickly end up finding out the ultimate truth that noone?s perfect, noone?s better, and that we are just who we are – a tiny pieces of dust sprinkled around the limitless Universe. Now criticising others and trying to change them just ’cause you believe that they could be better FOR YOU seems pretty inadequate, right?
Yes, EGO is one of the main reasons behind most of the emotional sufferings we go though: no matter whether we talk love, work, or friendships. It?s my EGO that made me doubt whether I should start a YouTube channel at all. It made me self-conscious about my accent and told me that I?d be mocked and laughed at if I ever dare put myself out there. Now you also know that it?s precisely your EGO that makes you feel anxious prior to giving a speech in front of a big audience ? it?s your EGO that fears humiliation ? not you. And by doing that it obstructs you from actually overcoming ?yourself? to get out there, share your knowledge and connect with others. It builds a barrier that separates you from the rest, so that you could keep on being positioned at the Centre of its tiny little World.
However, the moment you find the strength and incentive to change your perspective is the moment you?ll be actually stepping closer to what life ultimately is all about ? connecting with others, sharing your knowledge with them, enjoying the NOW moment, and extracting the positives from all that?s taking place. To ever achieve this, you have to open up your senses and achieve ?awareness’. Just imagine you escape your body next time you feel anger. Let your TRUE SELF observe the situation from above like a neutral member of an audience. You might suddenly acknowledge that it’s your EGO that tells you to get protective, to shout back and abuse others so that it feels better about itself. But, please, go ahead, observe for a bit longer. Are you feeling anger because someone has broken up with you and you love them unconditionally or just because your EGO was bruised? Beware – the answer might shock you.
 Actually, before I quitted my job I remember that when my boss told me I?d done something wrong – I?d get so angry with myself that tears of irritation would run down my cheeks. I?d start blaming myself and let the negative thoughts overwhelm my mind: ?Gosh how could you be so dumb. Stop humiliating yourself!? Rather than learn and take her comments as a constructive criticism from which I could grow and gain life lessons, I?d take it all so personal that the only thing I?d want was to prove that I could do better.
That I WAS BETTER. It was really all about reaching goals and meeting expectations rather than learning and growing. I guess the fact that she never said ?You are amazing? was what triggered my anxiety and depression back in the day. I was so used to being the ?best? at whatever I was doing that being less was not a legit option. Little did I know that by entering this game of proving myself I actually turned down any guidance and advice. My Ego would trick me into thinking that I already knew enough. If I was a bit more aware of what was truly taking place, I might have realised earlier that I rejected learning more because this job didn’t really give me any satisfaction. It was just a game I had to win and never promised to become more. The moment I decided to quit my job was the day I chose to be SOUL – the polar opposite of EGO. Of course, back then it wasn?t a mindful decision. If it were I?d never have shifted back to EGO again. However, the fact that I gave up trying to prove myself to my boss and resolved to start a blog and share my life experience with you was the first step to the realisation I’m slowly coming to now.
However, as I was still unable to separate my EGO from my Soul, in no time I fell into its grip again. Blogging slowly became yet another goal. I?d spill out my soul to you, but also incessantly check my statistics. I?d say to myself ?1500 followers?? That?s nothing! You?re doing something wrong! You should step up your game.? I?d get paranoid that my ability to write has deteriorated and that my readers weren?t at all pleased with what I was delivering. Suddenly my attention shifted from ?I want to make people happy?, to ?it’s time to have better statistics?. My Ego needed a proof that I was doing things right and a lovely comment by a reader was never pleasing enough. By letting myself be victimised by my EGO, I felt uninspired to talk about personal topics and I?d often go down the commercial road, talking about subjects that ?you? would surely enjoy reading. And when I launched that blog that was the last thing I wanted to do ? create articles to please. What I wanted was to shock and shake everyone to the core and inspire you to seek the answers to the grand existential question; to share my story and give you a chance to learn from my mistakes. It was not about the digits, it was not about the statistics. It was about giving you a piece of myself and establishing a beautiful and truthful dialogue. 

Well, there I was again: feeling gloomy and unhappy and just like that it suddenly stroke me: I was in need of a big change. I needed to alter the distorted way in which I saw ?LIFE? and ?SUCCESS? if I ever wanted to feel JOYFUL again.

AWARENESS:

When you?re negative and when you start complaining and judging others or yourself ? say ?SHHH? to your Ego, and its biased interpretation of reality. Ego is your shell, the one that tells you that you’re better than the others and that your opinion counts for more. And the thing is – by judging others, commenting on their appearances, or blaming them ? you isolate yourself rather than connect. And ultimately life is about that ? getting closer to people in order to have a sense of blissful completeness.
Over the last few weeks I?ve been teaching myself to be more aware of my surrounding and I?ve been trying to change the way in which I’d normally react in certain situations. I?ve been trying to put my EGO aside and let myself be guided by my TRUE SELF. And you know what? I?ve been incessantly smiling and rather than snapping back at people when my EGO was bruised, I?d stay calm and try to read situations that I?d have previously regarded in a negative way, neutrally. So next time someone cuts in front of you at the grocery store rather than get angry at them just tell yourself ?Okay, I have an extra minute ? shall I go back and grab the milk I completely forgot about?? Cast a positive light on the situations, which your ego considers wrong. Forget about the YOU and you will be surprised how much more simple everything might become.
I’m happy today. You know why? Coz I finally know why I’ve behaved in certain ways in the past; I finally get why it took me so long to get over my past relationships, and why I?ve done my best to make people like me.
But enough is enough really.
My Ego had me in its grip for far too long.
I?m not longer willing to be ?full of myself? nor do I feel the incentive to claim that anyone is. That?s a choice each and everyone should make.

It?s your choice whether you?ll keep hurting yourself by maintaining unhealthy relationships just because your EGO wants for that particular person to admit that you?re the best they could possibly get.
It’s your choice whether you’ll use harmful substances to numb your senses when you’re hurt, or whether you’ll accept the situation and see it as an opportunity to meet someone whose soul is corresponding better to yours.
It?s your choice whether you?ll keep on mind fooling yourself, trying to find answers to why things happened in the past, rather than learn from them, regard them as opportunities for improvement, and allow yourself to LET GO AND MOVE ON.
It?s your very choice whether you?ll do your best to seduce people just because your EGO seeks admiration rather than enjoy blissful moments with the ones who truly love you.
It?s your choice whether you?d be annoyed at people for doing things wrong (according to your EGO) or accept them for who they are and be at peace with them and with yourself.
It?s your choice whether you?d wake up and conceive of the dark clouds and pouring rain as depressing or whether you?d take a few minutes to appreciate the beauty of nature.
It’s your choice whether you’ll let yourself be fooled by your EGO or set yourself free.
Yes, it?s your choice to decide ? would it be your EGO or would it be your SOUL.
The ultimate aim of the ego is not to see something, but to be something’. Muhammad Iqbal
P.S. Have you had the chance to enter my ZARA BAG AND NYX ‘WHIPPED CAVIAR’ LIPSTICK CELEBRATION GIVEAWAY? If not you have a few days left to do so (here).
Good luck!
Lots of love,
A.

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TIPS FOR HOW TO DEAL WITH FEELING OVERWHELMED BY STRESS AND ANXIETY