Feeling Your Feelings

What Happens When Anxious People Surrender To Their Mind

Is this you?

Your brain is always on. You struggle to go to bed because your brain goes into overdrive and starts chatting away. You find it hard to relax. You worry constantly. You feel the need to always be doing something.

If so, I have some bad news for you: you’re a creative.

“What?” I hear you say. Let me explain.

Anxiety is a constant hum in my life.

On the surface, I look cool, calm and collected. But on the inside, I’m barely holding it together. I’m one bad day away from having a ‘shit in my hand and clap’ breakdown.

However, I’ve come to look at it this way:

Anxiety is the flip side of creativity. And it’s a gift. A head pounding, gut-wrenching, heart pumping, nightmare gift.

The downside to a creative mind is that it’s always on. Anxiety is essentially your creative mind with nothing to do.

So if you’re suffering from anxiety, chances are you’re a creative person.

On the days when my anxiety is bad, it feels like I don’t belong in my own skin. I can’t do anything. I can’t focus. I can’t sit still. I can’t get comfortable. I can’t eat.

The way I’ve managed to effectively handle my anxiety is to surrender to it.

You just have to sit with it. Don’t run from it. Say hi.

There’s an analogy in Stoicism:

“The world is like muddy water. To see through it, we have to let things settle. We can’t be disturbed by initial appearances, and if we are patient and still, the truth will be revealed to us.”

In other words, just close your eyes, be quiet and think.

Feeling your feelings looks a lot like doing nothing. Feeling your feelings looks like procrastination. It’s seen as a problem because our whole culture has conditioned us to always do something. But feeling your feelings is the only way through all the noise.

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