Anxiety is a displacement in time, regardless of the cause. Whether it is truama, childhood wounds, brain chemistry, relationship, work, or any other situation, anxiety is a departure from the present moment. The farther we displace ourselves from the present, the greater the anxiety. You can check this out by letting your worries drift into the future or the past and registering your body response.
Anxiety is also bodily tension and a restriction of breathing. When we are anxious we minimize our breathing, which minimizes feelings and sensation, and we tense our muscles, which keeps us anxious, often fearful, and on edge about our experience. In the connected world of sensations-emotions-mental states-spirit, when we have anxiety it registers in each of these areas. Hence the axiom when feeling anxious.....breathe!
From a Zen perspective, healing is paradoxical, you must first become aware of your anxiety and then completely embrace it and welcome it without resistance, judgment, problem solving, drowning in it, running from it, or denying it. The activity of completely embracing your experience in itself is a whole making activity, something that honors and validates the reality of experience. Becoming aware of anxiety requires attention to experience in the present moment and a commitment to honesty with yourself.
Many of the 'issues' of anxiety begin to resolve themselves through acceptance. Then there is the ongoing work of inner growth that is the daily effort of Zen practice. When the pot is stirred we are challenged to dig deep without our minds and heart and character to fathom what we are about, what ails us, and what dwells within. When you stop trying to fix your anxiety by becoming willing to encounter it as it arises in your life, you are being your athentic self. You are letting yourself be you.
Anxiety Paradox
