I’ve heard it said that to make God laugh, announce your intentions.  I’m sure roars of laughter rolled throughout the heavens the day I declared that the passing down of anxiety from one generation to the next was going to end with me.  It seemed pretty reasonable at the time though.

At its core, anxiety is fueled by thoughts.  Thoughts and actions are the result of how our brain is currently wired.  Not all thoughts are created equally though.  Some thoughts are silent, persistent, disturbing and controlling.  Like landmines, these thoughts come with a hidden charge of unrequested and destructive energy. 

As I built awareness of when past experiences were fueling anxiety, I sensed that I had already started the process of programming the down signals that my frontal cortex needed to let my amygdala know that everything is good from a physical standpoint. 

I began to gain confidence that I had found the incendiary devices in my adolescent minefield and had captured the culprits that were planting them.  I had hired the prison guards to ensure that they didn’t escape their confinement.  Now I was ready to move these disturbing thoughts into a subordinate role and make them work for me.