Is there a connection between Anxiety states/panic attacks and Spiritual/Psychic development?

Of course there are many reasons why someone may suffer from Anxiety/panic attack and these must be explored, however there are far too many healers/mediums/psychics who suffer from anxiety states or panic attacks or other psychological/emotional issues that can cause problems in their daily living, for us to ignore the connection.

Why is this? Many spiritual teachers will tell you that the path to service is a hard road and you need to suffer in order to understand others suffering.

Is this a spiritual truth? Or is it an easy answer to a complex question that many do not understand the answer to!

As a spiritual healer/ medium and a former Agoraphobic who suffered daily panic attacks for many years, I found some comfort in the belief that my suffering was necessary in order to help me to help others, however as I developed and grew spiritually, I begun to realise just how dis-empowering this belief is.

I set out to overcome the anxiety states and panic attacks that plagued and ruined my daily life and also to come to understand the causes there-of.

I hope that what I have come to know over the years maybe of some benefit to you and may hopefully empower you to understand the process and end your suffering.

I said earlier that there are many reasons why someone may suffer from anxiety/panic attacks, some are medical such as over or under active thyroid, hormone imbalances especially in women, these need to be explored and dealt with appropriately, some are psychological and may be as a result of hidden or buried traumatic experiences from earlier times in our lives, again these need to be explored with a qualified therapist in order to eliminate them. Some anxiety states/panic attacks or phobias are conditioned/learned responses to certain situations, again these need to be addressed in an appropriate manner with an appropriate health care professional.

In my experience I have found that any or all of the above maybe triggered as a result of developing or opening in a spiritual/psychic manner.

I believe that developing as a medium/psychic/healer creates a strong link, a bridge between the higher self, the conscious mind and the sub-conscious mind, so it is less easy to bury/hide or ignore the issues that we carry within us.

So as we develop spiritually, unresolved issues from the past ‘bubble’ up to the surface creating anxiety/fear that we do not fully understand and which we cannot fully relate to anything tangible, because it is from deep within us. This is an opportunity for us to get in touch with and release unresolved issues enabling us to become more balanced creating a purer channel for the universal energy to flow through us.

So although panic and anxiety states may well be physical/psychological in nature, even these maybe caused or exacerbated by the act of opening/developing in a spiritual/psychic manner, if you feel that this is indeed what may be happening to you then seek medical advice / treatment whilst also seeking appropriate help with dealing with any emotional/ psychological issues that surface.

This is not however the full story, as if the above was not enough to contend with, a developing psychic/healer/medium is likely to become ‘empathic’.

As a result of empathy we become ‘over sensitised’ to and in tune with others emotional/psychological/and even physical states, thus we can easily be ‘over loaded’ by the bombardment of a multitude of emotional states, in that overload we are unable to clarify which emotional state belongs to us, so in the confusion we mistakenly believe that all that we are feeling is coming from within us and because we do not understand it, the ensuing chaos increases our anxiety and panic and it becomes a self perpetuating cycle of anxiety and panic. Remember that this sensitivity is not confined to those we meet in our daily lives either but maybe the emotions of a discarnate spirit who has drawn close to try to make their presence felt. There is so much more that can be said about this over sensitivity and the affects and influences it can have upon us, but it is too in depth for an article of this nature, suffice to say that over sensitivity and empathy are the natural forerunners of our developmental process.

So what do we do about it, how do we control it?

Two things are vitally important to understand and accept, the first is Personal Responsibility the second is Self Awareness.

How do we utilise these two principles and how do they affect anxiety and panic.

Personal responsibility is the simple act of taking responsibility for all that we feel, it is the simple knowledge and acceptance that anything we feel is only felt because we are allowing ourselves to feel it. Nobody and nothing has the ability to ‘Make’ us feel anything that we do not wish to feel. This is a very difficult thing for most to accept but I would urge you all to do your best to respond to situations in a controlled manner not allowing yourself to fall into conditioned responses from the past, or allowing others to adversely affect your positive moods.

Self Awareness means to be aware of your own inner state of being at any given moment in time, when you are fully in tune with what you are feeling, if you are suddenly ‘Influenced’ by someone you meet along the way, or suddenly influenced by a discarnate spirit, you will know because you are ‘aware’ of your own normal emotional state. It is written above the temple at Apollo ‘Man know thyself’ The more you know yourself the less likely you are to experience anxiety/panic as a result of being empathic.

There are many ‘techniques’ to assist you to control over sensitivity but none will empower you as much as taking personal responsibility for your self and being fully self aware.

Some techniques will help, some maybe detrimental, example Grounding, a grounding technique such as imagining you are a giant oak tree whose roots go deep into the ground will help, but the true meaning of ‘being grounded’ is being in the here and NOW, save the meditative state for your meditation time, live in the present and enjoy the moment, don’t keep allowing your mind to wander off to the past, or fly forward to the future.

Protection techniques, certain so called protection techniques may help, again some maybe detrimental, example if you are in a situation with others and you feel that as an empath you maybe picking up on or being influenced by someone else’s emotional state then simply folding your arms across the solar plexus (or holding an object across it such as a magazine or hand bag) may be enough to prevent the influence. A detrimental technique would be to mentally ‘close’ down your energy field in order to protect yourself, in fact in almost every situation you would do better to expand your energy and strengthen it., withdrawing your energy weakens it, natural law states that a stronger force field will always overcome a weaker one.

Always be positive,

always take responsibility,

always strive to be in tune with yourself,

 if developing spiritually then always take positive steps to deal with any issues that  you know or feel you may have

Do not allow fear to dwell within you for there is nothing to fear but fear itself.

Remember we are all powerful spiritual beings who can accomplish anything we wish to accomplish, the only thing that stands in our way is us.