Anxiety disorder tends to run in families. This means you might have a mother, father, grandparent, or sibling with anxiety problems. Did you grow up with someone who had problems with anxiety and depression? Did someone in your family suffer silently with panic and obsessive thoughts? Did they use “nerve pills” or alcohol to self medicate?

            I have discovered that alcoholism does not create anxiety. My father didn’t become anxious because he abused alcohol.

We are living in stressful times. That’s true. But we have been here before, many times. And there is always something to worry about. So how do you feel safe? If you let the outside world determine your feelings of safety or justify your worrying, you will never feel safe. Now is the time to take control of your emotions and stop letting the outside world define who you are.

As awful as your anxiety may be, it probably gives you a great excuse not to do things that you know in your heart you would like to do. This is a very difficult realization, but a necessary one. It took me a while to realize that, although it was uncomfortable, I was using my anxiety disorder as a familiar and easy way out. Ask yourself if, perhaps on a subconscious level, your anxiety is keeping you from doing something that feels too challenging to deal with.

Life is too precious to waste it with worry. Anything worth having takes a considerable amount of effort. One of he most important skills that will support that effort is resilience. Being able to bounce back when things don’ t go your way. Being able to get up and try again when you fall down. It is important to understand that:

Compassionate self-talk is any kind of message or dialogue with yourself or someone else that makes you feel good, strong, happy, confident, relaxed, capable, loving, energetic, peaceful, or motivated. The technique can give you energy when you think you have none, a natural high, and the strength to achieve great things. Positive self-talk can make you feel like running that mile, taking that trip, writing that report, or speaking in front of several hundred people when only ten minutes before you were certain you absolutely couldn’t pull it off.