The Anxiety and Panic Projection: The IMAX Movie in Your Head
Experiencing anxiety and watching a scary movie is not very different.
One is not funny because you think it’s real, and the other is funny because you know it’s not real. Knowing it’s a complete fabrication that he paid money for, Freddy Krueger and Jason are able to entertain him while scaring him.
What happens if you stop in the middle of a thriller, turn on the lights, and start reminding everyone that it’s just an illusion and that it’s all made up? Most will tell you to sit down and shut up, and while you’re at it, turn off those lights! It seems like no one wants to be reminded that it’s not real, especially when they already know it’s not real.
In this article, we will look at the inevitable consequences of believing the hype of anxiety and panic when it is projected onto the screen of OUR consciousness. More importantly, we will find a way to change our response to anxiety so that we are back in control, whether or not Jason and Freddy are after us.
Anxiety is a response to a threat that is not real.
What you feel is real in the sense that it is happening, but WHY you feel it is not real.
This all-important distinction is the key that unlocks the door to your suffering.
The problem with anxiety and panic is that they trick us into thinking that since it feels real, then it must. be real. This unfounded assumption causes us to avoid the people, places, and things we used to enjoy.
And when we avoid our anxiety, we make it stronger.
But the problem is that we can never escape from where we are, because wherever we go, there we will be. We are already where we are running, even if we do not recognize it. When we see wisdom without escape, we face what confronts us. When we confront what is in front of us, we weaken the control it has over us.
This is all about being free from our anxiety, isn’t it? If so, we can never be free from anything if we run away from it.
In fact, what we are running from can only haunt us.
So, have you ever seen a movie in IMAX? If you haven’t, you should. The world’s highest resolution cameras create an intimate, virtual experience. It’s about going to the movies to forget you’re at the movies.
The memory of my first IMAX experience is still etched in my mind. More than three decades later, he is still alive and impossible to forget.
The opening scene was of a helicopter slowly rising above a Philadelphia neighborhood street, then hovering low over the city. You never saw the helicopter, but because of the floating sensation, you knew you were in one.
There is no frame, so the image is larger, taller, and wider than your field of vision. You are completely immersed in the scene, believing that you are part of the scene. And then, suddenly, there I was, in the cockpit of an airplane, or so I thought, flying just a few feet above a huge lake.
You really get the feeling of flying when you are right above a layer of clouds or slow moving water. Standing right in front of the nose of the plane looking straight ahead felt so real that I completely forgot I was sitting in a chair in a movie theater.
It’s so funny because you think it’s real.
And it only costs fifteen bucks to feel like you’re flying like Superman! It was the most exhilarating feeling I’ve ever had. Because he left such a lasting mark on me, I wonder if he helped me become an airline pilot for a short time two decades later.
The sound in an IMAX movie is so precise that you can hear a pin drop from across the room and know exactly where it landed. You don’t just see and hear an IMAX movie, you feel it in your bones.
All boundaries disappear and you find yourself intimately in the center of all the action, feeling every projected image and sound.
The experience is the closest you will get to reality.
This is precisely what happens when anxiety, panic attacks, and phobias are projected onto the screen of YOUR consciousness.
Just like the IMAX experience, anxiety and panic attacks hold you hostage. Since you feel it in your bones, you don’t question the validity of what your mind and body are telling you.
But this time, it ain’t no fun because do you think it’s real
You think IF you feel it in your bones, THEN it must be true. But is not. It just feels that way. The part of your brain that’s designed to keep you safe is working overtime, and you’re not getting paid time and a half!
It is not real in the sense that there is no real danger involved. It is not real because there is nothing to worry about. If it is not real, then it must be illusory. However, it is a very convincing projection, even if it is illusory.
Knowing that it is just an imaginary movie playing in your head, you are not fooled. Knowing that it is just an imaginary movie playing in your head, you give yourself the ability to disconnect from it and watch it unfold without being tortured by it.
You can let the projection unfold because you know why You feel like it’s not real
So the next time you find yourself with the IMAX movie in your head, just remember that it’s just a movie projected on the screen of your consciousness. You are completely safe. What you don’t believe in doesn’t have the power to torture you.
If you feel tortured, it simply means that you are believing in what is being projected.
In reality, you are at the theater and you KNOW you are at the theater, even if it IS a front row seat.
