Welcome back to the Anxiety Guide podcast, my friends, where we move past coping and into real
lasting healing. If you've been wondering why your progress feels fragile or why anxiety symptoms
keep returning, this episode might change everything because we're diving deep into the
real reason behind your setbacks and how living beneath your capacity mentally, emotionally,
physically, and spiritually can be the doorway to full recovery. Let's dive in.
Welcome to the Anxiety Guide podcast where we delve deep into the heart of anxiety,
providing you with the tools, insights, and inspiration to reclaim your life from the grips
of fear and uncertainty. I'm your host, Dennis Simsek, a former anxiety sufferer turned anxiety
healer, and each week we will explore proven strategies, share personal stories, and create
more than anxiety moments towards inner peace and empowerment. Get ready to break free from the
chains of anxiety and step into a life filled with purpose, joy, and unshakable confidence.
This is the Anxiety Guide podcast and your path to liberation starts now.
Before we dive in, just a quick reminder. If health anxiety has been ruling your life,
it's time to take your healing into your own hands. The all-new Health Anxiety Recovery
Program is now live at anxietyguideprograms.com. It's a 12-week deep dive designed to help you
retrain your nervous system and shift fear-based habits and finally break free. My friends, this
isn't just information, it's transformation at anxietyguideprograms.com. Let's start here,
my friends. Most people don't even realize they're doing this, but it's the number one reason why they
stay stuck. They are living above their baseline capacity. Not in terms of ambition or drive,
but in terms of nervous system tolerance, emotional space, and even spiritual bandwidth. You might wake
up with symptoms and your first thought is, how do I fix this? We've all been there, right? And you
rush through routines, you stack on stimulation, maybe even overdo self-care techniques just to
feel in control. Can you relate? But your system doesn't need control. It needs space. It needs
slowness. It needs you to stop throwing more doing at a body that's asking for less because
living above your capacity is like pouring water into a cup that's already full. Eventually,
it spills and we call that a setback. But friends, it wasn't random, it was a message. You weren't
failing. You were overflowing. So in this episode, I invite you to slow down, to recognize the
importance of dropping below the line, and start practicing life differently. And let's break this
down here. Okay. If I could sum up the biggest mental shift in healing, it's this. You are not
your thoughts. You are the space that notices them. For most people in anxiety recovery, mental
noise feels urgent, right? You hear a fear-based thought and immediately believe you must analyze
it or answer it or neutralize it. But that effort is exactly what keeps it alive. You're trying to
logic your way out of a subconscious safety program. And the more attention you give it,
the more you teach your nervous system, that the thought must be important. And this is where
setbacks start, not in the thought itself, but in your reaction to it. A new thought appears,
such as, I might faint, or what if it's something worse this time, right? We've all been there. And
the protector inside you wants you to react. It wants you to check it. It wants you to fix it.
It wants you to Google it, or mentally review the last 24 hours to find proof that you're okay.
But real freedom starts when you say things like, that's just a mental habit. I don't have to follow
it. I choose a new path today. Notice what I said there. Notice that I said, choice, not effort.
Because recovery isn't about replacing bad thoughts with good ones. It's about recognizing
that you have a choice in how much energy you feed the narrative. And you want to start small,
don't try to fight your thoughts, just let them pass. Let them float by like clouds and return
to your true intention. That choice will begin rewiring your mental pathways from fear to freedom.
What about emotionally? Emotionally, many of us are addicted to stimulation. Even in healing,
we chase emotional highs, such as the perfect meditation, that relief after a good cry,
the breakthrough moment that makes it all worth it. But that's still stimulation. Your nervous
system doesn't distinguish between positive or negative energy. It only knows when it's being
pushed, right? True emotional healing, therefore, doesn't come from spikes in joy or drops in
despair. It comes from staying neutral. It comes from staying grounded and steady. When you start
living below your emotional capacity, you give up the chase. You stop needing to feel amazing to
feel safe. This is huge. You start to allow life to be okay. And this might sound boring at first,
but that's only because your brain is used to drama. It's used to intensity, to emotional
turbulence, but neutrality is actually your healing zone. It's where you can finally breathe.
So how do you begin, Dennis? Okay. We begin by stopping the chase over emotional highs,
as proof that you're healing. Learning to sit with the flatness, the stillness, without judging it.
Reminding yourself that peace isn't always a feeling, it's a decision, right? This kind of
emotional steadiness becomes a deep nervous system recalibration because you're no longer yanked
into the highs of, I'm cured, or the lows of, I'm doomed. You're basically anchored. You're
rooted and you're finally safe. Now let's talk about your body, your body, because most setbacks
happen when we push too hard. When you overexert during a workout, when you skip rest days, or even
rush through daily tasks without checking in with your body. You're basically telling your system,
we're not safe until we do more. Can you relate? But healing is not a boot camp, my friends. It's
a restoration. The body heals when it feels safe, not when it's being forced into performance. That
means if you're doing high intensity workouts while your body is still in fight or flight loops,
you're reinforcing survival. And what do survival systems do? They hold on to symptoms. They don't
release tension. They brace instead of breathe. So let's reframe physical movement. Let's start
asking, what kind of movement feels nourishing right now? I love that question. Or can I stay
connected to my body while I move? Can I stop before I feel exhausted? Remember, my friends,
a 15 minute walk in nature done with presence does more for your healing than an hour long,
intense workout fueled by fear. Now, this part of going beyond your capacity, I hope speaks to you
deeply. We're going to talk a little bit about the spiritual aspect. Many of us unknowingly treat
fear like everything, right? We follow its instructions. We rearrange our lives to accommodate
its demands. We surrender our freedom in exchange for a false sense of control. But my friends,
fear isn't truth. It's protection. And protection is only necessary when you believe you're under
threat, but you're not. You're not in the way your subconscious thinks. Your inner protector
is trying to keep you safe, but it's using outdated data. It doesn't know that you've grown,
that you've healed, that you've survived every single moment you once feared you wouldn't. So
what does spiritual healing look like? It looks like taking your power back. It looks like noticing
a fear-based signal and saying, I see you. I know you're trying to help, but I don't need that kind
of help anymore. It means choosing trust over vigilance, presence over control, and most
importantly, practice over perfection. So in essence, if you're tired of setbacks, stop asking
what else you can do, and instead ask, where am I living beyond my capacity? Where am I still
chasing safety through stimulation? And how can I start living below the line with intention?
Because healing isn't just what you practice, it's how you live. And your nervous system is
always listening. I love you all so much. Thank you for your presence and your time here. Until next
time, be gentle with yourself. You're definitely not failing. You're learning a new way to be in
the world. And if you're ready to take the next step, the 12-week health anxiety recovery program
is waiting for you at anxietyguyprograms.com. You've got this, and you are more than anxiety.
See you in the next one. Bye-bye. The most powerful anxiety guy books on true anxiety
recovery are now available on Amazon. Pick up Beyond Anxiety and F Coping,
Start Healing, and supercharge your healing journey today. Also visit www.theanxietyguy.com
to connect with Dennis and find the right online program for you. Remember, you are more than
anxiety. See you in the next podcast episode.