I know I don’t speak alone when I say this, but I have anxiety. However, it’s such a norm of the culture that this isn’t much of a shock anymore, over 40 million Americans suffer from nervousness/concern. While I may appear to have my ducks in a perfect shiny row on social media and the internet, there are nights when I can’t bring myself to type a single word, or even sit down at my desk. There are days when I am fearful of a terror attack, of my car breaking down, of cancer, of losing my keys, of freezing to death.

Attending a college three and a half hours from my family nearly paralyzed me with fear, but here I am doing (and loving) it anyways. Transferring in the middle of high school seemed like a life-ruining calamity, and it proved to be one of the smartest decisions I ever made. Trying out for the cheerleading squad kept me up at night stretching for hours, taking my driver’s test caused my palms to sweat, and traveling alone on a plane for the first time made my stomach churn. They all turned out for the better. 

What I’ve come to discover, is that my mind enjoys paralyzing my body with numbing fear just to make the result that much greater than originally anticipated (and if that’s not the reason, then my mind is just plain vicious).

Every time that I’ve had myself convinced life wouldn’t go on another day, I woke up the next morning to birds singing and sun shining. Every time I thought that there wasn’t possibly a good outcome to the situation, something bigger and better falls into place.

Day four: Learn how to work with your worry.

If you allow your anxiety to control your mindset, your vision will be so distorted that you won’t be able to see the blessing in disguise. Again and again I feared the worse, and again and again the universe softly reminded me that I’m not the one in the driver’s seat.

And there’s nothing worse than a backseat driver pointing out every bump in the road.

Teach yourself how to be a grateful passenger, simply along for the exhilarating experience of what your life has in store.

Yours truly,

Madeleine