A Mantra for Anxiety
Cutting through the layers worrying to see clearly
Just this week I sent an email to my client to share some designs and to get their feedback.
The very next morning, my anxiety kicked in.
I woke up way too early and my mind started playing catastrophic scenarios of them not liking what I shared.
I imagined they would send back a harshly worded email demanding that I redo everything.
Sounds a bit over the top right? That’s my brain on anxiety.
It may be trying to keep me safe but all it’s bringing me is apprehension, worry, and stress, nothing helpful.
There are effective ways to keep our worrying minds from taking over that help in the moment such as meditation to create space between our thoughts and reactions, mindfulness techniques to ground ourselves in the moment, breathing exercises to slow our heart rate and signal safety to our brain.
For me quotes by philosophy, Zen, Budhism, Stoicism, and spiritual teachers are also helpful reminders in the moment I am deep in the anxious episode, which is why when I read the quote below by philosopher Alan Watts, his words pierced through the layers of worrying my mind puts me through and helped me see what was going on.
The quote by Alan Watts is:
“No amount of anxiety makes any difference to anything that is going to happen.”
This is one of those reminders that gets to the core of our experience and cuts through the layers of meaning we add to reality. It is definitely one that I struggle with as I let anxiety about something that is going to happen stress me out. I’m keeping this quote as reminder and printing it out so I can see it right in front of me on my office wall.
My own experience has been that all the anxiety I go through ends up being for nothing because the event that I had been stressting out about wasn’t as bad as my mind made it out to be. It came and and it passed without the world ending or something catastrophic happening. I feel a sense of relief for a few moments and my mind latches on to something else to become anxious about.
The cycle continues.
Until now.
This quote is a good reminder that we can stop the constant anxiety because it will not matter in the end. No matter how much we stress out, no matter how much we worry, no matter how much time we spend thinking about the event, the calories we spend overthinking about the event will not affect the outcome at all.
So the next time find yourself worrying about an outcome, pause and remind yourself “No amount of anxiety makes any difference to anything that is going to happen.”
Let those words cut through the story playing in your mind so you can get back to reality and be your best so you can do your good work.
May curiosity be your guide!
Rizwan ✌🏽