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You are not alone in feeling anxious! Millions of people wake up and feel anxious about the day, week or month. Anxiety is a very common feeling especially when the future is unknown and uncertain. A quote that I find helpful and puts anxiety into perspective is ‘no amount of anxiety will change the future.’ This is true. Feeling anxious does not help our situation at all, it just makes us feel uneasy and nervous and these feelings do nothing to change our situations. I read a book once called the ‘War of Art’ by Steven Pressfield and it talks about resistance. Resistance exists because it doesn’t want us to achieve anything and resistance can come as a form of anxiety. Sometimes when we are close to making new friends, or reaching a goal, resistance shows up and whispers in our ear, ‘stay home tonight, you don’t need to make new friends,’ or ‘there’s no sense in finishing your project, it won’t be good anyways.’ All of these resisting thoughts are anxiety rearing its ugly head. You might be nervous to go out with your new friends, so resistance shows up and tells you it is okay not to go. If you are aware of this and the ‘negative’ dialogue in your mind, you can overcome the resistance and tell yourself ‘No, I am going to go, and I am going to have a great time.’ Do not let your anxiety stop you from living your life and achieving great things! Finding ways to alleviate anxiety so that you do not become paralyzed by it will help. Two suggestions that are simple and easy are cold showers and meditation. Both have been proven to have calming effects on the mind (both in long term and in moments of panic), and actually provide mood boosting effects in the long run. So next time you feel anxious for any reason, try one of these two things out and see how you feel!

War of Art - Steven Pressfield