7 Words That Transformed How I Manage Fear and Anxiety
I was a fearful, anxious kid who grew into a fearful, anxious adult.
For a long time, I didn’t like trying new foods, going to new places, or meeting new people and was essentially closed off to new experiences. I was also, to varying degrees, anxious or fearful most of the time; things like confrontation, spiders, heights, strangers, crowds, enclosed spaces, the dark, driving in the dark, waiting in line, not knowing where the bathroom was, or sometimes even just leaving home gave me the stinky stress sweats.
Many of those are unavoidable, but I said “no” more often than I said “yes,” and I was blissfully ignorant in my little bubble of pseudo-safety and comfort.
I’m not saying that I’m completely free of fear and anxiety now (I’m definitely not), but I’m also not that person anymore, thanks to one change I developed over the last few years.
Before I even knew the word for it, I started reframing my fears and anxieties rather than continuing to allow them to disempower me.
Reframing may be challenging, but it can help us shift our experiences. The classic example is: instead of thinking of something as a “problem,” which has a negative connotation and sounds like something you’d want to avoid, think of it as a “challenge,” which is more motivating…
