Dear E:

You wrote, “I always always push through my  anxiety, and the results have turned out well for the most part. This time, however, my anxiety was so extreme that it was simply uncontrollable. I still very much wish I hadn’t let my emotions take over my logic”-

pushing through anxiety is like driving a car with one leg on the gas pedal and the other on the brake pedal. You keep moving forward but in jerky motions and you get so exhausted. Sometimes the brakes stop you altogether, and you get hit by the car from behind.

Keep pushing through anxiety, but don’t let it be the only thing you do. Confront that anxiety instead, look for its origin, learn skills to manage it, build trust in yourself to be able to regulate it, to weaken it, there are ways. Do these things with the attitude of gentleness toward yourself and great patience with the process.

Forgive yourself for being human and not a logical machine. Don’t ignore this failure in pushing through anxiety as the way. Learn from it.

anita