I’m No Longer Letting My Anxiety Stop Me From Living My Life

This is a mantra I sometimes have to tell myself when I’m about to do something that makes me feel nervous: I have anxiety, but I am going to do it anyway. Sometimes you have to push yourself and outsmart your anxiety rather than allowing it to control you.

Of course my body would physically rather be comfortable, relaxed, at home, curled up by the fire, and in a resting state. It makes total sense. If you had the choice between sleeping most of the day away on the beach versus going to work or going somewhere where it takes a lot of physical effort to be there, most people would choose to sleep on the beach. In the immediate present moment, making the choice to rest is something almost anybody would want to do.

But sometimes, especially if you want to get anything done, meet new people, or have worthwhile experiences, you have to push yourself outside of your comfort zone. You have to outweigh the pros and the cons, the costs and the benefits, of movement versus being stagnant.

Sometimes I get caught up in cycles of overthinking—like maybe, I think, if I am feeling anxious, it’s because I’m not supposed to be there. And in certain situations, I would say if you feel like your intuition is strongly telling you not to be somewhere, then there might be a reason for it. I would encourage you to listen to that guidance. There are many stories of people who avoided death because they followed their intuition or other instincts.

However, sometimes a feeling really is just a feeling. Sometimes it’s based upon our past experiences of things going wrong in social situations. Sometimes it’s not directly related to any event, past, present, or future. Sometimes we might just be hungry, tired, bored, or lonely, and these feelings can trigger a fight or flight response. It’s complicated being human.

It isn’t always easy to do things that will push us to grow. But I would say that nine times out of 10, I have never regretted going somewhere even though it would have been easier to just stay home. And what I always end up regretting more are the times when I stayed home instead of going out and socializing.

There is nothing wrong with being a homebody, but don’t get into the habit of being too comfortable there. There is a whole world out there waiting to be explored.