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Anxiety- The Dark and the Light
Anxiety according to the Systemic Approach
HELLINGERFAMILY SYSTEMSGENERATIONAL TRAUMASYSTEMIC CONSTELLATIONS
8/16/20252 min read
If someone in your close circle, or the people who raised you, has anger management issues, you'll likely develop strategies to control, protect, and protect yourself. This leads to a habit of hiding your true self. This is one of the nervous system's freeze-fight-flight mechanisms, freezing meaning withdrawing into yourself and this eventually results in "anxious attachment."
If this is your ‘’shadow’’, where is the light that casts this shadow?
Anxiety is the shadow. Becoming perceptive, the ability to foresee into the future is the light, the gift.
Anxious people are high-level experts at reading people and environments.
They sense and smell danger (whatever that danger happens to be: a threat to your relationship or job, someone who would harm you, a lie, deception, betrayal, etc.) before anyone else. If they have awareness and self-confidence, they follow this intuition, listen to their inner warnings, and either distance themselves from that situation or take precautions. However, in some cases, because they often think that they’re in the wrong for feeling the way they do, they stop themselves and say, "It just seemed that way to me, I'm wrong." This causes them to become even more anxious. And that anxiety sometimes manifests itself as anger, the one thing that we want to avoid the most. It’s exhausting to resist or deny aspects of your very existence.
Anxious individuals are very good at reading people, which is why they often become the therapists, ones everyone shares their problems with. The person who just unburdened themselves by telling their problem to the anxious person says, "I don't know why I told you these things," and leaves feeling lighter and relieved. The anxious person is the one who knows exactly what to say to the other to make them feel heard and seen. They know how to care for someone because, over the years, they've developed the ability to soothe and appease the very person (usually a caregiver) who caused their anxiety. The underlying motivation here is the need for safety: "They won't hurt me if I keep them happy."
When I say ‘’ability’’; because it's neither possible nor sustainable to make a narcissist who generates anxiety happy, it's not an ability that yields results, and therefore it's highly developed due to continuous repetition.
On the one hand, shadow involves freezing, delaying oneself and avoiding one's authenticity; on the other, the ability to read, see, and give others what they need is the ‘’light’’. You get to choose your light or your shadow, nurturing and incorporating it into your career, most importantly into your relationships.
Or, will you continue on the anxious path, trailing your shadow in the hope of gaining someone's approval and love?
Every shadow has a light.
Family constellations and systemic constellation methods are effective practices that allow us to develop different ways of connecting with our parents. Family constellations is a shamanic practice that allows us to tap into morphic fields.
Every cyclical problem we experience stems from our mother or father, or their ancestors. We can identify the root causes of the problems we've become aware of through Family Constellations, making them visible and audible. This way, relief can be achieved.