How to Abide in our Natural State When Feeling Anxious?

Sahaja Nishta is Sanskrit for the “natural state” and found in Tibetan Buddhist and Indian spirituality. What is the natural state? It is our innate nature, which is pure aware Being. The essentials of our natural state are peace, contentment, and happiness.  

However, certain thoughts, perceptions, and emotions like anxiety can appear to block our natural state. Many people are feeling anxious right now from concerns ranging from financial security to mental health and well-being to climate changes and the survival of our planet. When you add the rapid pace of technological advancements and how much information our nervous systems are being inundated with, it is easy to understand why anxiety has increased and continues to rise.   

So, what becomes of our natural state of pure peace, contentment, and happiness when we experience anxiety? Sometimes, people say, “I am just a really anxious person.” I hear this quite frequently now, and we need to examine this.  Ask yourself: Am I genuinely an anxious person, or am I simply experiencing anxiety right now?  It is crucial that you do not identify with the anxiety. Yes, you are feeling anxious, but if you are aware that you are experiencing anxiety, then how can you be that feeling?  Who is it that is aware?

Once any feeling arises, it is now present in your field of awareness. That means you have a few options: (1) you can try to ignore it by staying getting busy or numbing the feeling, (2) you can deem it “non-spiritual” and thus pretend you do not feel it, or (3) you can welcome it as a guest at your table and make space for it.    

This does not mean falling prey to victimhood, which is prevalent and one of the main archetypes in our world culture.  I am suggesting the practice of non-resistance. Non-resisting anything means remaining grounded in your natural state while allowing whatever arises to arise. If anxiety is arising, then we welcome anxiety by trying to understand what anxiety wants to communicate. There is no resistance, and no grabbing onto the feeling. We remain centered in pure Being when we welcome everything that arises without resistance or judgment. This concept is echoed in Rumi’s poem The Guest House about how being human is like a “guest house” where we welcome uncomfortable visitors/feelings.  

Recognizing your true essence—pure peace, happiness, and contentment—while acknowledging the rising anxiety allows you to be compassionate towards whatever feeling or pain seeks acknowledgment. It is the act of pushing away feelings that keeps them present and often intensifies them, leading us to identify as an anxious person simply because we feel anxiety frequently.  You are not the anxiety you feel, yet a part of your consciousness needs to experience that feeling. Allow it to arise and welcome it with courage, respect, and warmth.  Namaste.

The Guest House

(by Jalaluddin Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks)

This being human is a guest house.

Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,

some momentary awareness comes

as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!

Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,

who violently sweep your house

empty of its furniture,

still, treat each guest honorably.

He may be clearing you out

for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,

meet them at the door laughing,

and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,

because each has been sent

as a guide from beyond.