Reclaiming autonomy: 7 steps to beating anxiety & worry and returning to your true nature

Do you feel something activate in the head & chest when you read the news? For me, it’s agitation: a frequency in the head. I feel my chest close. I lose contact with my feet, pelvic region, and belly. It leaves me feeling anxious, and I find myself turning on social media to begin a doom scroll of distraction. Who benefits financially from this news to social media transition?  The carefully designed ads that came across my vision brought a financial return to the owner of the websites I visited. I’m reminded of covid times: big tech & pharma made profit while all of us were stuck at home in boxes and experiencing social contacts was a challenge.

News organisations have learned that shock & fear keep you clicking.  Your smartphone has design features similar to a casino which traps your attention (bells, flashy lights etc). A certain vigilance is needed to protect your autonomy, your agency, your “you-ness”.

Here’s my list of actions to return to simplicity (zero AI in generating this):

1. Phone off for 12 hours a day - get an analoa bedside clock/alarm, make the choice to be unreachable and read books. You can always choose ‘do not disturb’ on the phone and choose a limited number of people / family members who you care about who can call at anytime.

2. Postpone worry for 12 hours a day - For me, it’s after dinner until after breakfast. Anytime the “thing that makes you anxious the most” arises, choose to hit the “sleeper button” on the thought.  You’re not invalidating your fear, your simply postponing analysis / remuneration until a time when you’re ready and can act appropriately.  The mind & ego can be your friend instead of your slave master. See more on this on my article 'Ego: its support and obstacles towards life'.

3. Read books - What to do for those 12 hours?  Rest, stretch, sleep, and read good books. Support your local library by using it. Borrow books from friends. As a 2nd last option, buy the book at a local bookstore, or order online as the last option.

4. Be in Nature - find a park, go on a hike, be by a river. Get out of the head box, out of the building box, and into the beauty of the outdoors. Plan for a week or more immersed in Nature.  If you lack ideas, check out our lineup here.

5. The joy of saying ’No’ - setting boundaries - it’s easy to say Yes to Life when she brings the good stuff your way. She will fill your cup.  But if your cup is full of junk, there’s no space for her to pour in the light. Empty your cup.  Start saying ‘no’.  Examine that areas of life that are heavy, and begin healthy boundaries. Maybe it’s a friend, partner, family member, a job. Begin saying no.  You can do a trial run on AI if you like. Bottom line - junk out, light in.

6. Nothing days - reserve a day a week to do nothing. It’s not that you do nothing, it’s that you don’t make any plans.  Be a pyjama monster if you like. You’re welcome to do something, just don’t plan it. Normally I walk around our land at Tara Italy. Today I awoke with the idea to share the above words, am writing these words now, and posting without too much fuss and edit.  The idea is you reserve one day a week for nothing. Look up the word ‘fallow’

7. Baby steps over years, not “sudden transformation” - my experience has been that small steps outside of my comfort zone has been far more “revolutionary” than any yoga session, Vipassana meditation, or ceremony. It’s deciding to stretch “just a little” regularly. With the benefit of hindsight, I can track all the experiences that were necessary for me to sell everything and build a nature retreat in Italy. Volunteering at festivals, starting a storytelling club, becoming a yoga “teacher”,  starting & later guiding ecstatic dance, founding a festival and leading volunteers, quitting corporate, and so on. You keep stretching, eventually you are a magical unicorn, and then you leap into the unknown.

Have you read this far? OK, stop now, phone off, go outside, no plans allowed ;). Read books - the paper ones. Comeback to this article when the voice in the head gets to loud, or come visit us in Italy :).