Hi Natasha,

That’s funny, I am also a journalism major. I remember how much anxiety was involved in journalism, in meeting new people and asking them tough questions. One thing has really helped me with my own anxiety is a strategy I sort of modified from “DARE: A New Way to End Anxiety”: When the anxiety hits, instead of letting it overwhelm you, respond to it with a strong response that doesn’t involve fear. It’s funny how the anxiety can wither when fear isn’t mixed into the response. Then go and do something that you love instead of returning again and again to the anxious thoughts.

One thing that really helped me begin to grow is to ask myself “Who is the person I want to become?” As a writer, it might help you to write one page about this question, an assignment that Epictetus advises a person should do. Then I like to make a list of goals, choose one, and then create a list of the steps that lead to achieving that goal. Then take the first step and take the time to appreciate the feeling of progress. It can be such a beautiful feeling. Everyday you can move a little closer toward that goal. Create possibilities and make progress instead of staying stuck as you are unemployed.

Another thing that really helped, and I could imagine helping with a journalism career, is to imagine a happy memory before you meet someone. It can totally change the vibe of the conversation.

I actually just wrote this yesterday about purposes in this book I am writing. Come to think, maybe you might want to work on a project that is meaningful to you as you are unemployed. It may give you purpose, but I don’t think there is any one purpose out there that is the secret to our life:

“In the self-help genre there seems to be much written about our purposes, something we are meant to do in this life. The word is read and spoken so much that we don’t ever really think about it. To have a purpose implies something set in our lives, something we are supposed to be doing. Many people tend to believe that when we move toward our “purpose” we feel more right, but is that association with the feeling and purpose limiting our freedom when we designate a set role to our lives that we refer to daily?

Are we searching for the wrong thing when we focus on finding a purpose? Perhaps we are meant to do many things in this life, have many purposes. The search for one that defines us may even inhibit us from doing all the things our potential can produce. If I believe my purpose is to be a writer, think about all the other stuff that I could be doing as I sit here pushing keys to form words on the computer screen before me. If meeting a single person can change a life, think about all the people I’m not meeting as I struggle to write about something as complex as purpose in this life.”