Let go of anxiety as a lifestyle

Affirmation:  I am gentle with myself & my mistakes.

The Guided Decision

I will seek wisdom

Sometimes the questions are complicated, but the answers are simple.

Ask and it will be given to you, Seek and you will find, Knock and the door will be opened to you. Matt 7:7

Excerpt from Gifts of Imperfection, by Brené Brown

“I had always been able to manage the competing priorities, the family demands, and the unrelenting pressure of academic life. In many ways, anxiety was a constant in my life. 

But as I started developing an awareness about wholehearted living, it’s as if my body said, “I’m going to help you embrace this new way of living by making it very difficult for you to ignore anxiety.” If I became too anxiety ridden, I’d literally have to sit down or risk falling. 

I remember telling Diana, my therapist, “I can’t function this way any longer. I really can’t.” 

She replied, “I know. I see that. What do you think you need?” I thought about it for a second and said, “I need a way to stay on my feet when I’m really anxious.” 

She just sat there nodding her head and waiting, like therapists do. Waiting and waiting and waiting. Finally, it dawned on me. “Oh. I get it. I can’t function this way. I can’t function in this much anxiety anymore. I don’t need to figure out a way to keep going with this level of anxiety—I need to figure out how to be less anxious.” 

That silence thing can be effective. It’s a pain in the ass, but nonetheless effective. I used my research to formulate a plan to lessen my anxiety. The people I interviewed weren’t anxiety-free or even anxiety-averse; they were anxiety-aware. They were committed to a way of living where anxiety was a reality but not a lifestyle. 

They did this by cultivating calm and stillness in their lives and making these practices the norm. Calm and stillness may sound like the same things, but I learned that they are different and that we need both. CALM and STILLNESS