On overcoming anxiety, driving force and fear
Hey friends,
For most of my life, I’ve been a worrier and an over-thinker. I’ve struggled with pretty bad social anxiety. But as I have gotten older, I’ve realised practically everybody knows what its like to feel anxious, worried, nervous, afraid, uptight, or panicky. Often, anxiety is just a nuisance, but sometimes it can cripple you and prevent you from doing what you really want with your life.
But I have some great news for you: You can change the way you feel.
Overcoming anxiety
A simple and powerful way to dissolve problems is not to dwell upon the outcome of your actions.
Instead, learn to value each action (no matter how small or large), to do it with complete attention. Your joy and satisfaction comes from doing each action with a whole heart and mind. Results and consequences then take care of themselves. When you are not absorbed by concern for outcomes, how much anxiety can you ever have?
You don’t experience anxiety unless you’re attached to a thought that isn’t true for you. It’s that simple.
Driving force
There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love.
When we are afraid, we pull back from life. When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer with passion, excitement, and acceptance. We need to learn to love ourselves first, in all our glory and our imperfections. If we cannot love ourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others or our potential to create.
Evolution and all hopes for a better world rest in the fearlessness and open-hearted vision of people who embrace life.
Fear
Fear is crippling.
Fear of the future can convince us that there is no way out and nothing is ever going to get better.
Fear is blinding; it can make us miss the warning signs flashing right in front of our eyes. It can also make you miss those brilliant flashes of colour, when the world isn't so grey. But, if you think about it, being afraid isn't such a bad thing. Because fear is a reminder that you still have something to lose. Something worth holding onto.
By replacing fear of the unknown with curiosity we open ourselves up to an infinite stream of possibility. We can let fear rule our lives or we can become childlike with curiosity, pushing our boundaries, leaping out of our comfort zones, and accepting what life puts before us.
Bottom line
“We believe that 95% of your emotions are determined by the way you talk to yourself as you go throughout your day. The sad fact is that if you do not deliberately and consciously talk to yourself in a positive and constructive way, you will, by default, think about things that will make you unhappy or cause you worry and anxiety. Your mind is like a garden.
If you do not deliberately plant flowers and tend carefully, weeds will grow without any encouragement at all.” —Brian Tracy
Everything changed for me when I learned, act the way that you want to feel.
Stay mindful,
Pach Deng