Reviewed by Dr. Nicole Dolan, PhD — depth psychologist and founder specializing in complex relationships, neurodivergent families, and intergenerational patterns.
Anxiety is your cue that something in your mind-body-soul connection is out of alignment. By tuning in to what’s not serving you, you can take small steps that build to create fundamental change and lasting healing.
Your physical, emotional, and spiritual health are intertwined. Although the connections are not always obvious, you know that what you put into your body directly affects your emotions, what you feel can affect how you respond to stress, and how you respond to stress changes your sense of well-being. If you have difficulty with stress, then perhaps it’s time to consider healing holistically using a mind-body-soul approach.
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Key points
- Anxiety has a spiritual dimension
- Connecting to your inner purpose and self-care are important parts of healing
- You can establish a virtuous mind-body-soul cycle of healing from anxiety
- Holistic support can deliver sustained healing and relief
When anxiety is more than a healthy response to stress
It’s completely natural to experience anxiety related to a specific event, such as before taking an important test or before giving a long-anticipated presentation. Anxiety becomes a problem for you when it is pervasive and persistent.
Some anxiety can be helpful, but it is time to seek out help when anxiety interferes with your daily functioning, hampers your enjoyment of life, or creates difficulties for you at home, at work, or at school.
Symptoms of anxiety include feeling restless, nervous, sweaty palms, elevated heart rate, heightened anticipation of what might go wrong, difficulty sleeping, and even experiencing a panic attack.
Anxiety: a psychological overview from a spiritual perspective
Anxiety can be a manifestation of your deepest desire to contribute more to the world than you’re currently able to contribute. For many people, the restlessness that comes with anxiety is your subconscious recognizing each passing day as missing out on the opportunity to contribute something valuable to your surroundings.
Consider your internal emotions when you feel fulfilled. You are likely energized and inspired. You feel clarity and zeal. You are ready to accomplish something meaningful and you’re excited about it. In contrast, anxiety surfaces when you’re searching for your purpose as if you’ve lost your way and aren’t quite sure how to find your way back home.
When everything is in alignment, you feel almost as if you’re gliding effortlessly through life, where each day thrives on its own momentum, requiring little effort or investment on your part to move forward.
Anxiety is much like an inner compass alerting you to a disconnect somewhere on the mind-body-soul circuitry. Your optimal manifestation in the world is off and anxiety is sounding the alarm. Recognizing this, you’re invited to do a little bit of diagnostic digging to find the disconnect so we can work through restoring the electrical current that powers you. When you connect to your deeper feelings you won’t have to work so hard just to push through each day.
The most effective way to permanently resolve whatever keeps tripping your electric circuit board is to evaluate and address your circumstances holistically. There is a lot you can already do from home to make significant progress in your healing journey.
Strengthening your body against anxiety
Although anxiety is a psychological condition, there is a lot you can do physically to strengthen yourself and maximize your resilience. Fundamentals such as implementing a healthy sleep/work/exercise routine can do wonders for your mental well-being. Ensuring quality sleep and good nutrition also equips your body with the best fuel to resist the tides of anxiety that can overwhelm you.
Releasing endorphins through regular exercise is another powerful anxiety-busting strategy that’s always available to you. In therapy, you can get help implementing healthy lifestyle changes that will lower your anxiety levels. Incorporating these changes into your everyday life will equip you to function better when confronted with stressors at home, at work, and in relationships.
Your mind can be your own best friend (or worst enemy)
Consider the types of thoughts that usually occupy your waking hours. Ruminating or worrying about things you can’t control can sap you of valuable energy that can be better used on healthier pursuits. Practicing optimistic thoughts like affirmations, or calming your breathing and stress levels through meditation are some strategies that can yield tangible improvements to your emotional well-being.
Changing your thoughts is difficult. Like any habit, our brains tend to default to the most well-trodden neural pathways, established over long periods. With practice (and professional guidance), you really can use the power of neuroplasticity to calm your thoughts and reclaim your life.
Harnessing your soul’s intuition to restore calm in your life
Have you tried to be proactive and take action to better handle stress? The difficult news is that anxiety has its own ways of getting back into our heads and derailing our best efforts. Fortunately, a holistic approach has been shown to successfully address anxiety.
You can gain self-awareness, understanding that most of what you think might possibly go wrong in the worst possible way will not happen. You can release yourself from anxiety by accepting that events won’t always go according to plan. Recognizing that you can’t realistically be expected to be superhuman liberates you from anxiety as you come to recognize that there’s a bigger spiritual picture unfolding precisely as it needs to, without anyone being able to change the trajectory of what needs to unfold on a spiritual level.
Long term healing through a holistic approach to anxiety
A holistic approach is usually the most effective way to resolve anxiety in the long term because it addresses multiple factors on different levels which could each create anxiety. Strengthening one aspect of your mind, body, and soul has a strengthening effect on the other areas, which automatically makes you more resilient to the effects of anxiety in the future. A multi-faceted approach is usually far more long-lasting than quick fixes.
Clarifying your purpose in life while at the same time implementing small but consistent changes in your everyday life can truly yield dramatic improvements towards a calmer, more fulfilling life than you ever thought possible.
Reviewed by Dr. Nicole Dolan, PhD.
Her approach integrates depth psychology, nervous system work, family systems principles, neuroscience, and holistic practices to address recurring relational and emotional patterns.
