Dear Helen:

Any or most thinking is not correct or effective when the thinker is aroused by fear or anger… even joy. Calm is the state of mind that makes it possible to see things as they are. When aroused the view is foggy and lacks clarity. Calm is when the fog dissipates, the dust settles and your view is possible. So is intuition possible.

Once I was diagnosed with (there were quite a few diagnoses) with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder I thought: “Ah, so THIS is what is wrong with me: I have a disease, this explains everything.” But no, it does not. Fear is fear is fear- the CAUSE. Diagnoses are collections of symptoms- the EFFECTS of fear.

True healing, or complete- as complete as possible- healing is not about managing the symptoms but confronting (patiently, gently, with support) the CAUSE, the fear itself.

I hope any of this is helpful to you?

anita

Dear Helen,
I don’t know enough about anxiety as a disorder, so forgive me if I say something that doesn’t ring right.

I think if you can get deeper into examining where your anxiety comes from, versus your intuition, you may be able to control your anxiety better? Or at least become aware of it?

According to the Upanishads (ancient Vedic writings), there are 5 koshas or layers of being.
1. Physical layer (Annamaya kosha) – your body has its own supreme intelligence. Every cell is connected and communicating all the time. When your body reacts with goosebumps, or shivers up your spine, or a heaviness in your chest, it’s your body speaking to you, giving you signals.
2. Energy layer (Pranamaya kosha) – your energy levels are very telling of how you feel – notice if you feel a surge of positive energy when you think of a certain event or a drain of energy when you think of a certain toxic person in your life. It’s your energy telling you the truth.
3. Mental layer (Manomaya kosha) – this is your mind – ah, where the root of a lot of anxiety and mental disorders come from, and the layer that all meditations are trying to soothe. Don’t get me wrong – your mind is a very powerful entity. Maybe too powerful for its own good, unless you can control it. When we don’t give it direction, it takes over, tries to become the master, and makes up its own stories and directions. These are the signals that can wring you dry because the mind can take both sides – it argues and acts only based on its previous experiences, and does not understand non-experience based intuition. When you can understand and become aware that the mind is constructing stories to convince you of its thoughts, you can know whether to use or ignore its anxious advice.
4. Wisdom layer (Vijnanamaya kosha) – this is the higher wisdom that’s underneath the processing / thinking aspect of the mind. This is the layer you want to gain access to, to make the right decisions.
5. Layer of Bliss (Anandamaya kosha) – this is the beautiful center of who you are – complete and pure bliss – if you can reach it and touch it. But because it’s covered with other layers upon layers, we very often don’t even know or recognize it, except in some undisguised moments. This is the core you are trying to uncover when you go into deepest meditation.

I know I do not have answers to speak to your disorder, but I hope this helps in understanding the bigger picture of where it might be coming from.

Namaste, Saiisha

Hi Helen,
I am so grateful that you posted this topic! I myself am suffering from the same dillema, I haven’t been diagnosed as such but my psychiatrist agrees I have complex mental health issues, Anxiety, OCD ruminations, depression. I also used to follow my gut and I always felt I had a higher sense and could suss out if someone was bad immediately. I got really sick after my child was born and i didn’t know what was real and what was in my head. I thought my gut was telling me my childs father was a danger and that he was abusing my child, I split up with him over it cause i was near certain of this fact and it was so hard to be rational. It calmed down a lot once we lived seperately and i got put on medication, until of course he wanted weekend stays. It was torture at first but as another member said I had to force myself to trust him as he was the father and there was no actual evidence. Anyway sorry to cut a long story short my psychiatrist told me to look out for signs in my child like nightmares bed wetting change in behaviour ect, and there was nothing until June this month, bang…my child screamed and cried didn’t want to go to dads, started having nightmares and now bed wetting, im in bits cause i don’t know if this is all just coincidental and because of other things like a new class my child is unhappy in. My ex knows what buttons to push and he is putting all the blame on to my parenting. I really don’t want to think i was right about him all along and pray im wrong, my child swears he is good to her.Any ideas how i can calm my head down and try and be rational, i have made an appointment for child to a doctor tomorrow.