Anxiety Isn’t The Enemy, It’s Your Body Sending You A Signal

by Sharn Somasiri
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For most people, anxiety feels like something to be defeated, a malfunction in the brain, an inconvenience or a weakness to hide. However, anxiety is not a sign that you’re broken or weak. It is actually a biological communication system designed to protect you.

At its core, anxiety is your nervous system perceiving a threat, real or imagined. The amygdala, the brain’s threat detector, fires up before your logical brain even joins the conversation. That’s why anxiety feels fast, overwhelming, and automatic. You don’t choose it. Your system triggers it, to keep you safe.

The problem isn’t the anxiety itself. It’s that most people never learned how to interpret what their body is trying to say to them. When you constantly push through, suppress emotions, or ignore your limits, anxiety just gets louder.

When clients start working with me, the first shift we focus on is moving from fighting anxiety to decoding it. Key questions help you break the cycle:

What feeling or situation triggered this response?

What story did my mind instantly insert?

What emotional need haven’t I acknowledged?

Is this a real threat or a perceived one based on past experiences?

This is where change happens. When you engage curiosity instead of fear, the prefrontal cortex, the rational part of your brain, steps back online. Your body shifts out of fight-or-flight, and clarity returns.

This isn’t about accepting anxiety as your fate. It’s about using anxiety as data. A message. A sign something in your internal or external world needs attention, adjustment, or care.

Takeaway: When anxiety appears, don’t ask “How do I get rid of this?” Ask “What is my body trying to tell me?” When you treat anxiety as a signal rather than an enemy, you reclaim control.