“Anxiety is
a thin stream of fear trickling through the mind. If encouraged, it cuts a channel
into which all other thoughts are drained.”
Arthur Somers Roche
In a
moment of deep fear and unease, you are most likely going to experience a
series of distressing symptoms, thoughts and emotions. Trapped in your mind
with the fear of being judged by everyone near you: strangers, family members,
friends even teachers. Either thinking of when you are going to fail at some point or thinking about what already has gone wrong. You will soon begin to
fall into the habit of waiting for that moment of failure because of the
countless moments that you have felt this way. The moments were you do not have
a choice on whether your anxiety will control you or if you will control it,
the moment where communication is the worst part of your day and the moment
where people seem as if they were built just to ridicule you, where physical,
mental and emotional exhaustion are constant, making you feel as if their will never be a way out.
But there
is one. Frankly, there is more than one. Anxiety is strongly associated with
communication and socialization, immediately creating an image of how you
should speak, communicate and say to others. Media plays a huge role in
anxiety, allowing you to set boundaries and limits for yourself, and refraining
you from the freedom of expression. Even so, you need to begin to be
comfortable in your own skin. Whether it is a struggle to do so or not, sing on
your own, dance on your own, and do tacky things on your own. It will allow you
to begin to be comfortable in yourself due to the fact that you have done the weirdest things on your own.
When you
are standing in front of a crowd or in front of the class, attempting to
present something or say something and you feel that lump in your throat
starting to form, your muscles starting to tighten and you find yourself
stuttering and pausing in front of all these eyes, just remember that you are
not doing anything your weird dance or singing horribly, you are doing just
fine. You know what you are doing and you can
make it through that presentation or speech. Allow yourself to concentrate and
focus on the information that you already know.
If you are
afraid of judgment and what other people think of you, do not allow yourself to
fall into the pit of trying to be what everyone wants you to be. You are more
valuable and important when you are your own person, when you are different, because different means
interesting, as much as the media portrays the idea of having everyone similar,
same size, same height, same looks you should be distinguishable because aiming
for perfection is the road to destruction.
In
addition, do not forget that there are over seven billion people living, if some of them see you doing something
that is not “normal” and laugh at you, they will soon forget it because your
failures are just a mere moment of time that will soon be over and forgotten.
It is okay to have done something embarrassing but do not allow your mind to
make you feel like your life is a series of failures or embarrassments, you
have to undergo struggles in order to undergo success yet it takes time to see
it and accept it.
