A Short List Of Things To Remember When Anxiety Hits

1. Remember that you are not your anxiety.

2. Remember that your anxiety is not you – a little, singular word does not get to encapsulate all that you are and all that you will be. You are more.

3. When the flutters in your stomach overwhelm you, and when you feel like a tiny elephant is stepping on your chest, remember to breathe.

4. Breathe again.

5. Keep breathing.

6. Take a deep breath in, and another one out. Let the air fill your lungs. Let it reach all of your cells, your heart, your bloodstream, your limbs, and your head. Remember to keep breathing. Nothing good can come from holding your breath.

7. Remember that this too shall pass.

8. Remember that it’s ok to feel “this” – whatever “this” is for you. You can feel it without letting it take you over. You can feel it without living in that space for the rest of your life.

9. Remember that it’s ok to ask for help.

10. Remember that it’s ok to take medicine if a doctor described it. You’d take medication for your headache, wouldn’t you? There is no shame in taking prescribed anxiety medication, either.

11. There’s no shame in talk therapy, either.

12. There’s no shame in any of this – everyone feels, and everyone feels, differently.

13. Permit yourself to feel. Release yourself from the need to shame, or place blame. That’s not fair to you, and you deserve to be fair to yourself.

14. You deserve to be fair to yourself.

15. Say it with me now, “I deserve to be fair to myself.”

16. You are worthy of peace, too.

17. Say it with me now, “I am worthy of peace.”

18. Finding peace is not always an easy task – but it is worth it, and you are capable of finding it. Your road to calm might not look like your best friends, or your siblings, or even your spouses. But that’s ok – because it’s yours. It’s ok to search for what works for you so that you can find your inner peace healthily.

19. You can get to the other side of this.

TCID: megan-minutillo