04/28/2026
Even though I would fight for my coffee š¤£āļø But for most of us with anxiety itās so much moreā¦
One day in the gray, wet winter of Oregon, I sat cross-legged on my vintage teal couch with a notebook.
I started making a list of everything I was anxious about.
The list went on and on and on.
I kept writing, filling pages and pages with everything from my most heart-pounding fears to my most āmehā worries.
What I had on my lap was one giant list!
As I stared at line after line of anxiety, I wondered, āWhat did all the anxiety on this list have in common?ā
āWhy? Why am I so anxious about all this?ā
After a couple of years of grad school and me digging deep, I realizedā¦
There were tons of reasons I was anxious about those thingsā¦
Experiences I had hadā¦messages I learned from my family, school, societyā¦
But at the heart, I was anxious because I felt like something bad was going to happen.
I felt like I might die.
I might not survive!
THATāS why I was anxious.
And thatās what everything on that list had in common.
That was what anxiety was really about.
It blew my mind! š¤Æ
After that, I still worked to learn exactly why I was anxious about certain things, but I began to getā¦
My anxiety was REALLY about feeling like something bad would or could happen.
That realization changed my life.
Because I started to look and seeā¦āIs that REALLY true?ā
āIs that REALLY likely?ā
Most of the time, it wasnāt.
AND I started to seeā¦if something did happen, it wasnāt as bad as I thought and I could figure it out.
You can do this too.
You can start to see anxiety as more than a list of worries and as something that makes you feel like you might not be safe.
And instead of wondering, āWhat if?ā You can start to wonder, āIs this REALLY true?ā
Maybe, just maybe itās not and youāre brave enough to handle it. š©·
