Do you sometimes find yourself in the spin cycle?
By this I’m referring to jumping into the washing machine of worry and anxiety and what-ifs and taking a not-so-good ride that pummels you about until you feel rung out and hopeless.
The trouble with the spin cycle is that it just doesn’t seem to stop once you get going. In fact, it speeds up. That is until you’re nearly lifeless and can barely think.
The process goes something like this:
1) Something occurs to worry, alarm, upset, or anger you.
2) You immediately fly into the fight or flight mode. Your body responds by releasing hormones, resulting in fear or anxiety or both, and the spin cycle starts.
3) Before long you are what-iffing. What if this happens in response to what just happened? Or this? Or, OMG, this!!! You find that the more what-ifs you come up with, the less breath you have left in your lungs, because you’re now flattened against the side wall of the washing machine as it relentlessly spins and continues to pick up speed.
4) You can’t get a clear thought out. Your head feels stuffed to the brim with sheer anxiety. So much so that you begin to wonder what exactly you should be the most worried about. This or that or that and that??? Truly, there are so many variables that keep smacking up against you in the washing machine that you don’t know where to pin your anxiety and worry.
5) Becoming dizzy with all of the spinning, you find you have to sit. It’s truly necessary, or you could literally fall down.
6) Now with your breath coming in short gasps and your head spinning like a runaway top, you do your best to get a grip on yourself. If anyone or anything needs your attention at this point, you tend to snap at whoever or whatever presents.
7) It is at this point you realize things are completely out of control. It’s as if foreign forces are tapdancing all over your body and brain. You either realize it’s necessary to reign things in and get grounded and talk yourself off the ledge, or you continue to spin, becoming totally ineffectual.
Once you decide the spinning is doing no one any good—especially yourself—I’d suggest doing the following to climb out of the spin cycle and get to a state of normalcy.
1) Take several deep, restorative breaths. In through your mouth and slowly out through your nose. Force yourself to only focus on the breathing. Every time a what-if tries to make its way into your psyche, refocus on breathing. You’ll soon find that the spinning starts to subside.
2) Remind yourself there is a solution to everything and that there is a solution to your present problem. Continue to take deep breaths.
3) Remind yourself you can ask for help. Help from those in your life, and perhaps even more importantly, help from Spirit/The Divine.
4) Remind yourself everything happens for a reason and there are no “accidents.” You planned whatever just happened. Rather than becoming angry at yourself for this fact, ask yourself an important question: “What is my lesson in all of this?” If you don’t get an answer right away, know you will.
5) Now that your breathing is more even and the washing machine has slowed to a crawl, remind yourself that getting as upset as you got helps no one, and actually hinders. Sometimes greatly.
6) Remind yourself there are solutions to every problem. And that sometimes the solutions are something you wouldn’t have thought about if whatever happened hadn’t happened.
7) Continue to quiet your mind as the washing machine comes to a stop. Take several more deep breaths and then get out of the machine. Wait until your head clears and ask yourself once again, “What is my lesson in this?”
Rather than slipping into “why me?” or “how on earth did this happen?”, continue to tap into the lessons that came from the experience. The more you can do this, the more I assure you everything will become more clear. In fact, things may suddenly become crystal clear as an epiphany pops into your consciousness. An epiphany that wouldn’t have appeared if things didn’t get shaken up.
Of course, it’s preferable to not jump into the spin cycle in the future. But when you do experience the cycle, I suggest following the above steps to get you to a place of calm and understanding. Then, once things “dry out,” you’ll find that a funny thing happens.
More and more epiphanies come filtering in until you do something you may never have thought possible—you thank the spin cycle for spinning you so hard you were forced to stop, breathe, and ask questions.
Questions that the answers to may very well bring you clarity and wisdom. At the very “least,” you will experience great peace and knowing that all works out in the end for your betterment.
It’s just a matter of waiting for things to stop spinning.
