Learning to drive with anxiety.

As I’ve mentioned in the post (lady behind the blog) I suffer with Generalized anxiety disorder and PTSD which can make doing new things such a driving very difficult, driving itself without anxiety is stressful.

Normally I take new things in my stride and even though my anxiety tries to stop me, I plough on using what I call my determined head and most of the time it works but learning a skill such as driving has really pulled me in every direction when it comes to my anxiety.

I have wanted to drive for a long time, however university and life had gotten in the way so since moving back to North Wales I had been taking it seriously and learning to drive. I passed my theory relatively quickly as that was a lot easier for me as it felt like another test similar to what I was used to in university, going through the same questions over and over and memorizing the right answers, the hazard part of the test was the part of the test I stressed about the most due to the number of clicks ratio but on the day after practicing it so many times, I smashed it. 🙂

Actually learning to drive I found very hard at first, I put myself under immense pressure as soon as I went behind the wheel for two reasons:

1. I need to drive now, all the opportunities I need for both my independence and career rely on driving this includes; the volunteering I want to get involved with in North Wales, the networking I want to accomplish, gaining the practical skills I need which includes identification skills and traveling to my masters in September.

2. I am driving a dangerous vehicle with no prior experience that can possible kill someone, or someone else on the road can kill me any second.

3. I need to understand everything perfect first time and get it right first time. This totally unachievable and unrealistic and highly unnecessary.

As you can imagine this gave me so many symptoms and made my driving lessons unenjoyable and stressful. I was learning but very little. I wasn’t taking anything in that my instructor said, I was holding the wheel too tightly, and my anxiety was seriously affecting both my reaction time and my coordination behind the wheel which therefore resulted in my driving being somewhat unpredictable and erratic at times.

How I helped myself and my anxiety includes both spiritual steps and practical steps.

☯️☯️☯️☯️🕉🕉🕉🕉☮☮☮☮

I am a quite a spiritual person and lately I have been working on balancing my chakras and I believe this is the first thing that has helped me greatly. Every morning I have my routine of which after my coffee, once I’ve woken up I sit and focus for a few minutes on each chakra, starting from the base to the crown chakra where I visualise roots coming from my feet and binding with the ground, for I am a vessel of the Earth. Once I reached my crown chakra I visualise it opening up either like a lotus flower, once it is opened I imagine all the positive energy of the universe is spreading all overr my body until it reaches my feet again, then I visualise a Black Panther at the left side of me (which is a little spiritual trick I read about and it works wonders- she absorbs negative energy and stops it reaching me). I then close my crown chakra but the positive energy surrounding me forms a force field, I imagine I am like a lighthouse of bright white light. I close my crown chakra but I keep my positive light force field open at the top, this allows only positive energy to be absorbed. As well as this I have always used crystal therapy since a teenager, recently I have added new Crystal’s to my collection that I wear and carry with me:

☮ leprodite, opalite, black obsidian, chakra pendant, black tourmaline.

The black tourmaline reflects negative energy back on the person giving it, the black obsidian absorbs my own negative energy , opalite removes energy blockages to your chakras and chakra crystal keeps your chakras aligned and balanced and last of all leprodite is an stone famous for helping with anxiety and it has really helped.

Plus my driving instructor has recently put a lucky lapis lazuli buddha in the car which was given the purpose to help with driving anxiety and to help students pass their test, 7 students have passed their practical tests in a row. Lapis lazuli is a powerful intense blue stone for opening the third eye and stimulating the pineal gland, relieve anger and negative thoughts, as well as easing frustrations causing the anger.

So these are the spiritual tactics I have adopted and since I have been doing this I have found that I am less effected by negativity around me, I am calmer in myself, my depression doesn’t affect me as much and I sleep better.

Chakra healing and the benefits.
Many theories tell us that the entire universe is made up of space which is full of energy. Luckily, we got to know about energy system located inside the body which helps us align with the energy of the universe. The energy systems of the human body, the chakras help us align with the outside world or the universe.
No one in this world has their chakras completely balanced except those who have attained the highest state i.e. Samadhi. For the rest of us who are struggling with our everyday chores is because of the imbalanced or blocked chakras. We can realign our chakras to function well through various methods, by self-meditation which again is difficult for most of us to concentrate or heal ourselves.
We have all the reasons to invest in chakra healing to get over the issues faced in daily activities. Some of the benefits of Chakra Healing Therapy are mentioned below.

(https://www.epainassist.com/chakra/10-benefits-of-chakra-healing)

☮🕉☯️ I will write an article later on about crystal therapy.

Other tactics I have been using are:

CBD oil; Cannabidiol – more commonly known as CBD – has a number of health benefits, along with treating pain, epilepsy and acne and anxiety. CBD has proven to be an effective natural remedy for anxiety sufferers, thanks to the way it interacts with the body’s endocannabinoid system. There is intriguing preclinical and some clinical data supporting the use of cannabidiol (CBD) as an effective treatment for the management of anxiety disorders,’ says Dr Ware. ‘There are more than 30 preclinical studies that investigate the anxiolytic [anxiety-reducing] properties of CBD. These studies generally support the position that CBD has an effect on reducing anxiety behaviour.’ In 2011 a study also found that when people with generalised social anxiety disorder were given 600mg of CBD oil prior to a public speaking test, as opposed to a placebo, they experienced significantly less anxiety, difficulty and discomfort during their speech.

I have been taking CBD oil for a while now and I have noticed a significant difference in both my anxiety and sleeping patterns.

Lavender oil/ toiletries: lavender is a plant I have always loved, I have a lot of toiletries with it in and it really helps me feel relaxed. I started putting it on just before going for a driving lesson and it’s really helped.
Lavender is an herb sometimes recommended for the relief of anxiety. One of the most widely used remedies in in aromatherapy the plant’s essential oil is said to promote relaxation. Some research shows that lavender essential oil may possess sedative properties, which could play a key role in its potentially anxiety-reducing effects, which would explain why I have always been so attracted to it.

So adapting all these methods has really helped me with my driving and I hope reading this some people will try them out too.

Thanks for reading.

Faye x
#driving #spiritual #spiritualhealing #chakra #chakrabalancing #meditation #spiritualawakening #cbdoil #lavendar #selfhelp #driving #generalisedanxietydisorder #anxiety #anxietyhelp

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