Seeing is believing! People are used to determining the reality of things based on their appearance. If they tell us that appearances are deceptive, we assume that we are the exception, that we have the gift of seeing more deeply and that, if we see it that way, surely it must be real.
Anxiety is a distortion about oneself, others, the world and the future. This means that facts are interpreted irrationally, events are given more importance than they have, and their impact on us is exaggerated. This causes beliefs to lead us to misfit and our critical judgment is affected.
Distortions occur by learning from past experiences. When we are little, we build schemes or ways of how the world works based on our experiences, so the way we relate to the facts gives us the pattern of how we evaluate them.
Anxiety is a distortion of reality. Which means that it changes reality, exaggerates it, to such an extent that it is no longer the same as what we originally perceived. When we understand this, we stop believing in what we see.
Yes! Your anxiety presents itself as an indestructible giant and makes you feel powerless. In front of your eyes an epic battle unfolds, the great giant Goliath against the defenseless shepherd. But just as in the biblical story David defeated Goliath, in the same way, the little David that you have inside, that Divine spark that beats in the depths of your being, is capable of defeating the Goliath that you face.
The first thing you should do is banish the existence of that giant from your mind and heart. You have to recognize that what you are perceiving in your intellect, which will then trigger and cause negative feelings, is not real.
Anxiety develops progressively and gradually worsens. At first, negative thoughts produce negative feelings; then those feelings are fed back from the thoughts and, as a consequence, our mind produces more terrifying ideas. This is how anxiety gradually increases.
As the anxiety builds and becomes a seemingly “indestructible” Goliath, the person feels diminished, small, and insignificant. It’s a matter of perspective: in front of that tremendous giant that stalks me, I am very small.
gabriel benayon
by CEDOC