Emotional whack-a-mole

You know that whack-a-mole game they used to have at a fair or arcade? I don’t think I’ve ever actually played the physical game, but sometimes it feels like I’m playing an internal version with stress. Do you ever feel your stress or anxiety is like that game, just as you deal with one issue another pops up? Are you playing emotional whack-a-mole? “The problem is these moles keep popping up! I have to whack them down!” What if the problem isn’t the emotional moles? Perhaps the real problem is that the machine on. You need to unplug that machine.

What’s feeding the anxiety? What’s giving energy for those emotional moles to keep popping up. It’s not the mole of your business, it’s not the mole of your health or relationships. 

When anxiety seems like it’s about those things then you have to address those things to calm the anxiety. The problem with that approach is that it means you have to address or get rid of each and every one of those things to get relieve the anxiety and stress. That’s not a good solution. Addressing every stressor is an overwhelming task. And getting rid of a stressor often doesn’t feel good. It doesn’t feel good to get rid of a relationship or abandon your health. That doesn’t work very well. 

But that’s where the mind often goes: get rid of the problem, manage it, CONTROL it. There’s pain or suffering of some kind, anxiety, worry, depression, and it seems like it’s coming from externalized things: “I have to find a relationship, cure an illness, find a new job,” whatever is in that anxiety machine. You try to address each of these things as they arise but something new pops up. That’s when the stress keeps coming back. That’s when you’re playing emotional whack-a-mole. Then you get stuck living in a state of control. “I’ll get rid of this; I’ll move that over there. I’ll do this less and I’ll do this more.” You just keep playing. 

There’s a way to turn off the machine. When you work with your mind you can address the internal source of fear. When you come to a place of presence your stressful relationship with the external world dissolves. Then you can put down the whack-a-mole hammer.