Anxiety

I was reading a blog recently in which the writer said tthat her anxiety has gotten worse in the past couple of years.  As a long-time reader of her blog, I realized that she had been in therapy for her anxiety (and other issues) for that same length of time.  It got me thinking.  What if, by giving our anxieties enough power to make us turn to therapy, medication, and/or other interventions, we are actually just feeding that anxiety and giving it more and more power?  For the record, I am not a doctor and I don’t even play one on TV.  I do randomly deal with my own anxieties as do most people. 

I started to wonder what would happen if every time I started to feel anxious, I dealt with it by changing my thought pattern and thought about how the situation would likely turn out – some situations are just not pleasant but can be much less stressful than I was making them into (think dentist!) – and make it more positive in my mind. 

Now, let me be the first to admit that my life is far from the stressful  life of a high-powered executive working mother.  My typical biggest stressor is what I am going to put on the dinner table in an hour. That said, in the situations that I do have anxiety in, it has worked!  I may have done something right!  Yippee!  I had a dentist appointment just yesterday and had been feeling anxious about it but I was able to go in and just relax.  And the appointment was just no big deal.  I hope that I can continue that trend.  I will be utilizing this method as often as possible. This weekend will be a good time to test it as we have company coming and that always gives me a bit of worry!