ontheedgeofeverything

It’s probable that when you hear the term ‘anxiety,’ you automatically associate it with a negative connotation. Likely because we have been socially conditioned to acknowledge anxiety as a mental illness, a burden, and one that requires correction.

As someone who deals with anxiety on a daily basis, I can understand why the condition is affiliated with negativity. It really is a draining condition as it constantly attacks your sense of self-assurance, and convinces you to doubt yourself, your thoughts, and your actions.

Part of the process of working to control anxiety is eliminating it as a whole. We are prescribed medications, given therapy techniques, and are encouraged to quash any anxious thoughts as soon as they arise to prevent them from worsening over time. But thinking about anxiety the other day, I asked myself, “what if instead of pushing anxiety away, we embrace it?”

Think about it. By recognizing our anxiety, we don’t necessarily have to allow it to consume us. Rather, by recognizing it, we are conscious of its presence and can work to assess what exactly works to do and why it presents itself when it does. Perhaps in acknowledging anxiety, we can work to understand it, as opposed to trying our best to avoiding it and never gaining a solid comprehension of why we deal with it in the first place.

In seeing a therapist, I’ve been encouraged to pay attention to my anxiety and when and why it flares up. I haven’t been told to shut it out, but instead, let it in, in a controlled manner, and assess its reasoning for reading its ugly head. This has helped me to control the severity of the anxiety I experience, and further come to realize how to embrace it in a controlled and preventative state.

The concept of welcoming something that seems so uninviting is leery, but perhaps it is something that could lead to healing.

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