Getting Lost from Anxiety

[Anxiety - VIII]

Anxiety feels like being stuck in your own body. It’s claustrophobic. It’s suffocating.

Anxiety also makes up stories. About you. About the world. And they all have bad endings.

Anxiety thrives on telling elaborate lies to a captive audience (you). It’s like story-time at the library . . . except the kids are all forced to be there (with no potty breaks and no snack time) and none of the stories are true, enriching, or remotely healthy.

There’s no escaping.

Unless you’re that one kid that always gets lost on field trips.

Not the class clown that demands 70% of the teacher’s attention. Not the sneaky kid that is assigned a chaperone. And not the cliquey kids that huddle in groups. They’re all accounted for.

No, the kid that sneaks off does it innocently and quietly. One moment he's distracted by the clouds through the window, the next moment he’s following the patterns in the carpet, and 60 seconds later, he's a quarter mile away catching butterflies.

Escaping anxiety doesn’t happen by force.
It happens by noticing.
Noticing what is undeniably true.

Small and tangible truths.
Truths that predate the lies.
Truths that engage the senses.
Truths that are noticeable if we slow down and look closely.

Grounding truths, like the shape of the clouds or the pattern in the carpet or the color of the butterfly.

If we can’t start here—the sun on our cheeks, the smile of a child, the smell of camomile tea, for example—we will suffocate at the feet of the BIG non-truths of anxiety.

Notice what’s true and simple and beautiful.
Follow them.
Get lost.