During May, fear fell on me with an unapologetic thud.

Fear is a sneaky little devil that slides in through the back door and BOOM. It’s staring you in the face, teeth bared, hair wild, ready to POUNCE.

I’m no stranger to fear – I’ve had fear in the past – years ago – fear so strong that the only response I could muster was to curl up on my parent’s couch and repeat silently: I am whole, perfect, strong, powerful, loving, harmonious, happy… and free.

Even though I felt none of those things.

My response to fear has always been to:

Hide

Curl up

Block out the world

Ignore texts and calls

Freeze

I allowed it to take the reigns and halt all progress.

-During May, unexpected events occurred that left me feeling insecure, frightened for the future and in a general state of mild panic most days.

This time, though, was different.

I spend a lot of time reading books on philosophy, self-help, different ways of approaching life.

And I decided… to try something different this time.

I can’t say if these techniques will work for you…or not. But they might be worth a try if you ever find yourself in similar shaking shoes.

Instead of curling up, closing off, shutting down…

I did the opposite of what I felt. Instead of hiding when it rained, I decided to ride out the storm.

•When I wanted to go to bed and pull the covers over my head, I instead hung out with a friend.

•When I felt overwhelmed with anxiety and wanted to emotionally shut down, I opened up and talked about how I felt with those close to me.

•When the feelings threatened to take over, I talked to the feelings and said:

“Fear – NO. You exist right now but I will not allow you to take over this day. I will NOT ACT on what you’re telling me. I will not. I will set my goals and begin taking ACTION toward what I want. You might be in me right now, but you are NOT ME.”

I learned to RIDE IN THE RAIN – when the torrent comes, KEEP GOING.

Do you ever feel these anxious feelings? Do they ever seem to take over and consume your heart and mind?

I find separating myself from the fears to be so helpful.

You are love, truth, kindness, freedom, joy, peace. And sometimes your body and mind experience anxiety/fear – but that fear is not YOU. It’s just another thing in the universe – like a passing car.

Oh look, a car!

Or a tree.

Or a boat.

Or a sandwich.

Oh, look – it’s a sandwich!

Oh, look, – it’s anxiety again! What a silly goose – trying to take over and make me think it’s telling the truth.

And this is not to say it’s never good to listen to fear. There are, clearly, different types of fear and you’ve got to know how to respond to each.

I’ve found:

FEAR is meant to ALERT you – but you’re not designed to stay in that fear. Rather than continuing to focus on it, take ACTION toward SOLUTIONS.

For general anxiety, I found these techniques helped a lot.

Anyhoo, it’s JUNE now and I’m back to my bright, popping self and ready to rock and rumble!

I hope you have a splendid day… Let me know what you do when anxiety starts to take over.

Chandi