3 Ways to Release the Grip of Entrepreneurial Anxiety

When it comes to the world of entrepreneurship, it seems like anxiety is package deal for so many of us.

What's worse is when you've committed to doing this work and you understand how the Law of Attraction works, you now consciously KNOW when your vibe is attracting in the stuff you don't actually want!

I once (very consciously) manifested a car accident. 

I had a vision of getting into an accident as I left the house and felt the fear pangs around it as I simultaneously tried to erase it from my brain by putting on happy songs.

But no matter how hard I tried, I still couldn't shake the foreboding thoughts and, I kid you not, just 20 minutes in to my drive I was rear-ended at the traffic circle on the way to visit my parents.

In a world made up of energy and the undeniable pull of that which we attune our focus, I've had to become radically responsible for the vibration I am putting out in to the world...most especially as I grow my business. 

And the truth is this process has not been especially ease-filled because I came to it a bit more tightly wound than you're average ball of yarn.

Yet, it's no coincidence then that this entrepreneurial path is the one I've chosen. 

Because entrepreneurship, in and of itself, has brought with it the invitation to to start facing the facts about the role anxiety had been playing in my life. 

I've known all too well what it feels like to be convinced that the other shoe is going to drop in just about every situation of my life.

I've known what it feels like to expect the worst and to live in fear on the inside while pretending I had it all together on the outside. 

I mean, who wants a coach with panic attacks and heart palpitations?

I had been carrying around this faulty coping mechanism for way too many years and when I dove head first in to the world of entrepreneurship (as a mama to a then-8-month-old baby girl), I found myself having freak outs on a very regular basis.

I remember one day, in particular, standing in the master bedroom of our first home and feeling like I couldn't breathe and as if the room was spinning around me.  

I was thinking over and over in my mind, "We could lose everything and it will be all my fault." 

It literally brought me to my knees and in that instant I felt completely trapped inside of myself...which was the absolute antithesis of what my business mantra was all about. 

I felt like a fraud and I also knew that I didn't want to live like that any longer. 

It was in that moment 2 1/2 years ago that I decided it was time to take drastic action to really understand what lived beneath the surface of this well-practiced pattern.

It was time for me to face the facts and to choose a different way of living my life because this way of operating was not only impacting the way I showed up in my sacred work in the world, but it was dramatically impacting my health, my marriage and my life as a mama. 

In today's email I want to share the 3 ways I began to release the grip of Entrepreneurial Angst to focus on growing in my life + business. 

Please feel free to share this with anyone you know who might be needing it. 

#1 - I got real.

When I fully acknowledged and accepted that this anxiety was not who I really am, rather, it was a coping mechanism I was using to deal with my fear and manage my life, it felt like a a million pounds had been lifted off my chest.

When I saw anxiety as a physical symptom, rather than an identity, it totally shifted my perspective and began to free me from its grip.

Anxiety was simply spotlighting the places in me craving more love, trust and most of all a need for surrendering in to who I really am and what I was put here to do. 

The more real I got with myself about all aspects and angles of my business and the roles and responsibilities I was playing in every aspect of my life, I gave myself the space to make the necessary tweaks to honor my needs.

#2 - I got quiet. 

I've spent so much time getting quiet within myself, slowing down, honoring, praying, meditating and remembering why I was lead to this work. 

In my voice lesson the other day, my teacher and spiritual guide Martha Omshanti Gleason (the fact that the word "glee" is in her name is not lost on me!) shared a quote that, quite literally, cracked me open and brought everything in to focus in a split second:

"The work of the guru is not to weaken your will. The work of the guru is to strengthen you, so you can stand unshaken amidst the crash of breaking worlds." - P. Yoganada

All I've ever wanted was to find a pathway to walk this life as the ground shook beneath me. 

Because trauma and being human is a package deal...just flip on the news for :30 seconds.

Grief and sadness and accidents and fear are unavoidable experiences, but being steady as the world spins within ourselves is a choice.

Learning how to trust in this notion and in myself is something I have committed to on a cellular level and in doing so, I have come home to more of who I really am, day by day.

And the magic of this has been discovering that there's no room for the chaotic vibe of anxiety when you're on a quest for inner peace and truth.

#3 - I connected the dots on my bigger purpose and mission. 

I came to the deeper understanding that this work...this sacred brand and business birthing process is really about self-actualization.

It's the portal to stepping in to our deepest truth and sharing it with the hearts of others.

It is about coming home to who you really are and crafting a life that fully supports you in the ways you learn and earn and stretch and love and grow and give and receive and revel in the magnificent, brutal experience that is being human.

It's about surrendering in to your reason for being here and accepting that your work in the world is not about strategy and follows and hitting six figures.

Your work in the world is about the IMPACT you make on the lives of others by honoring the call of your soul. 

It's about the collective rising of human consciousness that begins as a tiny seed inside each of us. 

It's about your personal mission and that thing you can't stop thinking about, that thing that has been calling to you all the days of your life.

Your brand and business are part of your pathway home...the rest is just details.

Once these concepts came in to focus for me, I started to view my anxiety as a symptom rather than a way of being.

And as the feelings of angst began to rise to the surface again, I recognized that it was an invitation to take better care of myself, to get more aligned in my business and to reframe what used to send me spinning. 

I started to have more fun with the inner workings and mechanics of running and growing my business.

I awakened to the realization that I get to choose how I want to do this thing and how I want to feel in the process. 

NOW IT'S YOUR TURN:

Do you ever feel anxious inside your life and business?

How could the connecting more deeply to your purpose and bigger why help you unravel yourself from those anxious feelings?

We're talking about it over in the Why Warrior Tribe.

Click here to join in on the conversation.