Embracing Your Anxiety

Discovering the Hidden Genius in Your Anxiety and Procrastination

If you’re feeling anxious, very anxious, or deeply anxious right now, it may help to know that your anxiety is normal and necessary. You need your anxiety, and there are supportive skills and practices to help you work with anxiety instead of being overwhelmed by it.

Most of us have been taught to feel ashamed or afraid of our anxiety, or to treat it as a sign of weakness. Some people even talk about anxiety as an epidemic, as if it’s a serious disease that’s also contagious, and that we have to learn how to control or stop or get rid of it. But none of that is helpful or true.

What is Anxiety?

Anxiety is an essential emotion with an important job: it helps you prepare for the future, organize yourself, and gather the energy you need to get things done.

When you can reframe your anxiety and learn how to work with it intentionally, it can help you focus, plan, take action, complete your tasks, and fulfill your goals.

A Course to Help You Embrace and Understand Your Anxiety

Join Embracing Anxiety author Karla McLaren and Dynamic Emotional Integration^® professional Sherry Olander for this relaxed 5-week course. You’ll develop new skills and explore emotionally respectful ways to befriend and embrace your anxiety.

You’ll learn new practices to help you engage with the energy and foresight your anxiety brings to you, and you’ll also learn how to work with your anxiety when it pairs up with other emotions such as fear, panic, depression, or shame.

We’ll also explore the often-unseen genius in procrastination, and learn how to identify whether your natural motivational style includes procrastination (and how to honor and welcome it in yourself and others).

What You’ll Learn:

• What is anxiety, why you have it, and why you need it
• New and healthy ways to befriend and embrace your anxiety
• Strategies to engage with the brilliance and foresight your anxiety brings to you
• How to work with anxiety when it pairs up with anger, fear, shame, and other important emotions
• How to embrace procrastination and get things done in your own unique way

As you learn how to listen to and embrace the benefits of your anxiety, you’ll be able to access its foresight, conscientiousness, and motivation to help you get things done with skill and grace.

Course Details

Length: 5 weeks

Dates: Starts Monday, May 22 and ends Friday, June 23.

Price: $195

Learning and Interaction Structure: This multimedia course contains written curriculum units, PDF downloads, audio and video components, forum discussions, and live one-hour weekly webinars using the Zoom video conferencing program.

Live Zoom Webinar Discussions: These weekly one-hour sessions will be held on the Zoom webinar program, and will be recorded if you cannot attend.

Webinar Schedule: Mondays from 3:30pm to 4:30pm Pacific (Mondays, May 22, May 29, June 5, June 12, and June 19). We will also have an extra Zoom on the final day of the course, Friday, June 23 from 3:30pm to 4:30pm Pacific.

Time Commitment: You’ll read the course curriculum and interact in the forum on your own schedule (plan for a minimum of two to three hours per week), and you’ll meet with Karla, Sherry, and your classmates for one hour in the Zoom each week for additional discussion and practices.

This Course Is Suitable For: Everyone who’s interested in learning how to work brilliantly with anxiety.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Do I need to have read Embracing Anxiety before the course starts?

A: No. You’ll learn as you go, and you’ll develop the focused Empathic Mindfulness practices that will help you work with your anxiety (and all of your other emotions) skillfully.

Q: What is anxiety?

A: Anxiety is the emotion that helps you plan for the future, organize yourself, and gather everything you need to complete your tasks and project and meet your deadlines. Anxiety is a very active and proactive emotion, and as you know, it can be very activated. In this course, you’ll learn how to identify your anxiety when it arises at a soft level of activation, and how to focus yourself when your anxiety is highly active.

Q: What causes anxiety?

A: Your anxiety is a natural and necessary part of your capacity to think, act, and plan. Anxiety is a vital part of your basic intelligence and your neurological functioning. Nothing causes anxiety, but your anxiety will respond to tasks, deadlines, and situations that need your attention.

Q: How do I cope with my anxiety?

A: The first thing to know is that your anxiety is essential to nearly everything you do. Instead of coping with emotions or treating them as problems to be solved, we focus on the genius in each emotion. This course helps you develop the specific tools and practices you need to work skillfully with your anxiety.

Q: How are anxiety and procrastination related?

A: Procrastination is usually treated as a problem or a sign of laziness, but it’s actually a perfectly useful and valid way to work with anxiety. If you’re a natural procrastinator, you may have never been witnessed for your particular form of genius, but in this course, we celebrate you!

About the Instructors