Anxiety is a Liar

Don't listen to your anxiety—IT'S A LIAR!

Anxiety fills your head with all the scariest, darkest, edge-of-the-world possibilities it can imagine. And trust me, it has a very large imagination.

The possibilities anxiety presents you with are always prefaced with “What if?” It will wear you out with all of its ‘what ifs?’.

I'm not going to tell you, “Don't worry,” because that never helps. (And just so you know, worry and anxiety go hand in hand.)

What I'm suggesting is, don't believe everything Anxiety tells you, because it's a liar.

If your anxiety tends to run high, here are a couple of things you can do that will absolutely help.

First of all, cut out all caffeine from your diet. I know, I know…I hear your wails of protest. But caffeine irritates the part of the brain that produces anxiety. What's interesting to me is that a lot of people who have high anxiety ingest a lot of caffeine. Hmmm, could there be a correlation?

The second thing you can do to help is to learn to practice Living in the Moment. This moment, right now, that you are reading this is the only moment that exists. The past is past, and we have no promise of a future, so this moment is the moment that matters most. Make full use of each moment. When you have a good moment, drink deeply from it and enjoy it. And when you have a bad moment, tell yourself, “This is just a moment. I can endure anything for a moment.”

* Taken from The Wit and Wisdom of David Johnson, Volume I1: The Hairy Catfish Caper.