People with anxiety often have a reputation for being at war with themselves. They overthink everything, they seem to be in a nervous wreck 99% of the time, they’re concerned about how they come across to others, and they have bleak predictions for their own futures, so it seems like they can’t easily shut off their operations in panic mode.

It’s easy to think that they’re never at peace with themselves. It’s easy to assume that people with anxiety are incapable of maintaining an inner calm or have unconditional security for who they are.

This isn’t always true, because inner peace doesn’t mean that a person is calm or in a state of zen all the time. Rather, it’s about having the deep-rooted belief that you are still in charge of yourself and your own life. Even when you suffer from anxiety, you can absolutely have inner peace, and here are the signs that show it.

1. You may worry about what others think of you when you’re speaking with them, but you don’t change who you are for them.

2. You have an overload of complex emotions, mostly negative ones that fuel your anxiety, but you end up dealing with them in a controlled and healthy way, usually by doing activities you love.

3. Even when you think that the worst possible outcome is more likely than anything else, you do all you can to improve yourself because deep down, you know that you have the power to create the life you love.

4. Every time you panic at the thought of falling behind other people, you’re still at peace with the fact that you’re going at your own pace and your life doesn’t have to look like anyone else’s.

5. You may have trouble coping with difficult circumstances that come up unexpectedly, but you ultimately recognize that you have no control over external circumstances and it’s best to focus on what you can control.

6. You are anxious about doing things imperfectly, but you consider failure the greatest teacher of life, regardless of how devastated you may feel about the outcome initially.

7. When you’re stressed out, you resort to healthy coping mechanisms (exercise, resting, hobbies, talking to a loved one) instead of destructive ones (drinking, drugs, self-harm, reckless spending, etc.).

8. You overthink all the ways others could potentially be evaluating you, but deep down, you know their opinions don’t really matter.

9. Sometimes anxiety debilitates you, but you’re able to deal with it in a productive manner, and you realize that the point of maintaining inner peace is not to eradicate anxiety completely but to thrive in spite of it.

10. You get frustrated with how much more worried you are than happy, but you understand that you can’t expect to be in a state of bliss every single second of every day of your life and that genuine growth comes from discomfort.

11. You’re in control of your anxiety and manage to create beautiful moments of joy in your life, no matter how strong anxiety seems to fight against you.

12. You ruminate over past mistakes a lot, but you never get overly upset and acknowledge that the only thing you have power over is what you do right now.

13. Anxiety doesn’t weaken you like you always worry it would. You emerge stronger because of how much you use creativity and resourcefulness to combat it.

14. You worry too much about not doing enough, but you’ve accepted that you are where you are and the best thing you can do is forgive yourself and keep moving forward.

15. Your anxiety makes you feel like you don’t love yourself and you aren’t quite capable of standing up for yourself, but when push comes to shove, you can absolutely choose what’s best for you.

16. You feel frustrated about anything that throws you off balance, yet you are also at peace with the fact that unpredictability is to be expected and can rebalance yourself.

17. You feel like your anxiety is hindering your growth, but within, you understand that in spite of that feeling, it does not have any power to ruin your potential.

18. When you’re disappointed and overly worried about something, you still acknowledge that this will pass and isn’t as significant as you’re temporarily making it out to be.

19. You recognize that anxiety is not part of your true self.

20. You are anxious about the unknown, but your soul tells you that you can weather any storm, not in a way other people might demand you to, but in a way that’s most real to you.

21. You may try to be like other people, but you realize that it’s unsustainable and disingenuous, and you understand that true security comes from living and thriving as yourself, not as anyone else.