Anxiety.
A ferocious emotion.
I lived with it for years. My first bout came in my early twenties and was nearly incapacitating. It’s what drove me to therapy. And while I was cured of the worst of it, generalized anxiety remained.
That was no picnic either. I wasn’t as bad off as before, but my world WAS getting smaller and smaller as I tried controlling all the things that made me anxious. In time, I stopped flying. Became terrified of getting sick. Was leery of venturing far home.
Of course, with me being me, I couldn’t just be content to stay put. My mind demanded all things familiar, yet my soul craved a bigger, more carefree life.
I tried everything I could think of to solve the paradox, but nothing worked. Well, nothing worked until this happened.
One evening, I woke up in the scariest time of the night and laid in bed contemplating my problem. Soon, I found myself in the place that I was most terrified of being—standing in the middle of a black sea of muck. Only this time, there was a message whispered that the muck was all a ruse, and that all I had to do to rid myself of fear was to lift myself out of it.
So I tried.
And just how the Wicked Witch of the West dissolved into a watery mess of death—is just how I rose from that sea of fear and into a more peaceful existence.
Not in a heartbeat—this isn’t magic—but soon enough, I was living the expansive life I’d been dreaming of.
I still don’t understand where the message came from. All I know is, as bizarre as it seemed, the advice worked.
And it will work for you too.
If you can envision it, you CAN achieve it. If you don’t believe you can become a New and Better You, just PRETEND you are, until you REALLY are.
Here’s to you if you’re reaching for brave.
This is my story of how I overcame fear, please encourage others by sharing your story too.
