Pretending we are not anxious, when we are, is a tactic that may fool those around you but you can't fool yourself. We always know what we are doing, but sometimes we just don't or are not able to acknowledge it. Attempting to deny or repress our fears and worries within our self does not work. The result is often the heavy feeling of carrying around extra emotional weight., depression or a physical ailment, indicating that in our subconscious, we know very well that something is wrong.
Being rigorously honest saves us from playing destructive games with ourselves. A worry that we can define and examine in the light of day is far less threatening than one we are trying to tuck away in the darkness and hide.
Most, if not all, anxiety is based on fear. So when faced with anxiety, the question becomes what it is we fear. If our worry is rational, we need to decide what we can do to prepare for the worst-case scenario. If the worry is irrational, we need to figure out how to get rid of it. But, no matter whether a worry is rational or irrational, we can't examine it until we acknowledge we have it. Getting our worries out in the open and talking about them with people whose judgment we trust keeps us grounded in reality.
"I learned that courage was not the absence
of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave
man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he
who conquers that fear." - Nelson Mandela
If you are worried about something today, consciously examine it. Look at it from all angles. Walk around it in your head. Taking an honest look at something that is causing you to be anxious is not an easy task, but the more conscious you can be about it, the more you will be able to begin to understand that you can resolve it. That is the power we all have within us.
