Dear Wannabe Warrior,

You mentioned that your anxiety began around eight weeks ago. Was there a specific event in your life that triggered this anxiety?

Regarding your personal safety, I suggest that being aware of your current situation is empowering to you. You see, and you can imagine, how you could be vulnerable, which gives you the opportunity, and perhaps the motivation, to make a plan to become more responsible for your own personal safety. I suggest that a few areas of exploration for you are R.A.D. training, and Krav Maga training.

An acquaintance of mine recently went through the basic R.A.D. training, and she came out of it feeling much more empowered about her ability to manage her own safety, as well being aware of her responsibility to actively improve her abilities to protect herself. It was almost surprising to see the effect it had on her. She plans to take the advanced R.A.D. class, and I have encouraged her to begin Krav Maga after that, if not sooner.

Of course, there is so much more to protecting one’s self than just the physical, e.g. situational awareness, how to think during an intense situation, how to de-escalate such situations, and how not to get into such situations in the first place; up to, and including much less physical things such as setting boundaries in your personal relations to protect your mental or psychological well-being. You can become adept in all of these things, physical and non-physical. I suggest that, as you mentioned, shoving your head back up your ass, and not paying attention, will be counterproductive to you feeling more secure and in control of your ability to protect yourself.

However, there very well may be a deeper, unaddressed experience (or experiences) in your life that may be contributing to your anxiety. I defer to Anita to explore that possibility with you.

Regarding the U.S. Presidential election, I suggest that you are not alone in being stressed about it. Many people I’ve talked with are stressed about it. To discuss everything that has contributed to the U.S.’s current state of political affairs, however, would, I think, require a whole forum unto itself. Please know that you are not alone, but also be cognizant of what you can control and of what you can’t. If the things that cause you anxiety about the Presidential election (or anything else: world affairs, the economy, wars, “terrorism,” etc.) are currently beyond your control to ameliorate or repair, I suggest that you focus your energies on the things in your life that you can control or improve.

Regarding the news, I suggest that much of it in the U.S. is primarily infotainment. From what I can tell (except in very few instances), true, objective, informative journalism is dead. The majority of what is presented as “news” appears to me to be fear-mongering to entertain to sell air-time, or designed to further a political or corporate objective, which is also to sell air-time. Filtering the news, with an eye toward eliminating the BS, will help you to determine what deserves your concern and what doesn’t.

I also suggest that the awareness of your mortality is empowering. Based on that, you can roughly estimate how much time you have to live your life in such a way that you determine to be worthwhile and fulfilling. To use an analogy, if you consider life to be a test with no specified end-time, but you know that the test will indeed end within a roughly estimated time, you may be more inclined to use your time in a manner that you deem to be the wisest to achieve the best “grade” you can. By “grade” I mean a self-imposed measure—your own self-imposed measure—of how you did. I will leave the measures of religion out of it.

I think that the world can indeed be a scary place, and that life can indeed be scary. But to truly live, I suggest that one must face the fears one can, and endeavor to determine, and do, the best one can to live one’s life as best as one can.

Consider, too, that you are not alone in your life’s trials. Millions and millions of people have experienced the same fears and anxieties with which you are currently concerned, and any fears and anxieties you may encounter in the future (and thankfully, many more that you won’t encounter). As you are doing here, by posting your concerns, I suggest that you seek the knowledge of others, in whatever form that knowledge may take (ancient to cutting-edge) to better inform your assessment and options when dealing with the situations that cause you angst. Filter out what works for you, and use that as a starting point to empower yourself and move forward.

You can give into an eternal sense of doom, or you can take life as the challenge it is and learn what you can to empower yourself and move forward in the best way you can, in any direction you see fit.

You CAN do it!

CMI