In Italy alone, it seems that 3.7 million people suffer from anxiety, a figure that has further increased after the pandemic.
I believe this is the case worldwide.
According to the American Psychological Association (APA), anxiety involves both emotional and physical symptoms, such as restlessness, difficulty concentrating, irritability, muscle tension, and sleep disturbances. These symptoms occur when the body’s fight-or-flight response is triggered without any immediate danger present.
As Seneca once said, we suffer more in imagination than in reality, and this also applies to anxiety because, in most cases, it is triggered by an event that has not yet occurred and often will never occur.
Approaches related to re-educating thought patterns and improving mental discipline and concentration certainly yield great results, but what happens when we frame the problem of anxiety and emotional issues within the esoteric theoretical framework? You’d be surprised.
Let’s look at some details. In many cases, anxiety is exacerbated by a weakness in action. The person becomes lost in creativity, continuing to think even when it is time to act. When transitioning from thought to action is difficult, there is a grounding issue, and the solution is to strengthen aspects of personal power. Training the root chakra at the base of the spine (Muladhara), the navel, and the Ajna chakra, both individually and in harmony, leads to quick and profound results in such cases.
On the other hand, anxiety is often the result of hyperactivity in the solar plexus, the third front chakra, when it is poorly managed. In this case, when the solar plexus is out of control, the person eats without reason and is constantly restless and anxious. The solution is to strengthen the natural “manager” of the solar plexus: the heart. Focusing on this center, and on the upper chakras that interact with it, naturally leads to better management of the solar plexus.
I remind the reader that the personality is composed of four bodies: the physical body, the etheric or vital body, the astral or emotional body, and the mental body. It’s not uncommon for the emotional body to cause problems and be poorly managed, but we quickly notice that when vitality is high, meaning the navel chakra is strong and the mind is solid, the emotional layer becomes contained and causes no harm. The new insight this perspective offers is that vitality plays an important role in managing emotions, which often take control and throw us off balance, especially when we are exhausted from a vital energy standpoint.
Approaching the problem of anxiety esoterically allows us to notice how a holistic esoteric approach offers something special compared to the purely cognitive analysis and reflective or strategic techniques of modern psychology, which are predominantly mental.