Being Present, Grounding and Mindful

It is said that anxiety is living in the future, while depression is living in the past. Think about that for a minute. It’s totally true!

For years I’ve seen people suffering with symptoms of anxiety…..insomnia, heart racing, shortness of breath or difficulty taking a full breath, nausea or butterflies in the stomach, lightheadedness, ear ringing, and more. The commonality is that the things people worry about are future possibilities that may never happen. People worry about the futures or safety of their adult children, about whether they’d keep their job, about future financial stability, about whether there will be gas at the gas station on the way home. Statistics report that only about 15% of the things we worry about actually happen. Think of all the time and energy spent worrying about things that never happen! Possibly even worse, if one of those things does happen, time and energy are spent on the worry and then AGAIN dealing with the actual issue. Yikes! Who has time for that?

I’ve also seen people suffering with symptoms of depression…..sadness, tearfulness, hopelessness, inability to enjoy themselves, feelings of worthlessness or hopelessness, excess guilt, etc. These people tend to live in the past, stuck in a traumatic memory or loss, or beating themselves up for choices they’ve made. The sad events of our past cannot be changed. The view…