So called “free floating” anxiety often is not as amorphous as it seems; it is often based in very concrete fears. These fears are often masked by other secondary emotions and rationalizations. Anger is often a go to emotion that is a stand in for fear. And ideas cluster that steel one against fear. If my fear is that I am never quite good enough then I may write a canon of laws that keeps me from facing it. For example, I may decide that if I procrastinate forever then I will never have to face what I fear most.

Usually the present fear is linked to a coordinate in past experience, a charged memory that keeps the fear alive. By exposing and tapping on that specific event and remembered experience the charge is cleared and the present fear is addressed in addition. And then what seemed to be general anxiety dissipates as well.