The Direction You Want To Go

Anxiety will likely move you into patterns. These patterns may be invisible, and you might not even recognize them as such. It’s possible that we think we’re taking a different path when it’s really the same path. like believing we’re engaging in variety by going to a different Chinese restaurant each time.

If anxiety refuses to leave, maybe you should do something differently. Really differently. Which is going to be scary.

Please note that anxiety and fear are not the same thing. Fear is an experience in the present, usually about a real thing perceived as a threat. Anxiety tends to shear towards the future, usually about something that has not materialized in reality.

So you may be choosing to put yourself in a situation that makes you afraid.

That’s not necessarily going to be pleasant. On the upside, you will be actively engaged in something that could be very worthwhile, and at the end of it you may find you are less susceptible to anxiety because you’ve already done the scary thing.

Finding the right scary thing to do comes down to engaging with your discomfort. At one extreme is the most uncomfortable thing you can think of to do, like walk in shards of glass. It’s rarely necessary for you to go to that extreme.

Then there’s the absence of discomfort, so-called compete comfort. This is a unicorn. It doesn’t exist, at least not for any length of time, and any attempts to sustain it or live in this place are going to be a mistake.

Somewhere between these extremes is the discomfort you sense over an action that will help you around your anxiety and allow you to grow. Moving into that discomfort is the first step in doing the thing that scares you.

Many things will get in your way as you attempt to ponder and engage with your discomfort. You may get sleepy, hungry, or suddenly discover a number of tasks that you just have to do first!

I suggest doing something differently and finding your discomfort, because often the worst thing about anxiety is how it destroys our internal compass. It can suggest endless false directions to go, or it can completely blind us to any possibilities at all. The best way to really get around that is to have a direction to go that is reliable.

If you’re doing it differently, choosing the right kind of discomfort, you’ll be able to determine a direction to go that may serve you well.