Chronic anxiety symptoms are often similar to the symptoms that arise when watching a scary movie. Even though you’re not in real danger, your mind tricks your body into believing that it is and you get scared. All your mind needs is a scary picture to feel afraid. You can become scared just from looking at words on a page. Prime example, Stephen King!
Let’s pretend you are at the theater watching a scary movie. I imagine you’d become scared and cover your eyes at some point. If you sat through the whole movie and didn’t run out of the theater, you’d come to realize your feelings of danger was simply your mind playing a trick on you. You were never actually in danger, yet you felt as if you were. Anxiety is the exact same way!
I don’t know about you, but the more I watch a scary movie, the less it terrifies me. The same goes for anxiety. The more you sit through it, the less terrifying it will seem. It’s all about sitting with that fear and knowing it will end. Reminding yourself, “That silly mind of mine is playing a trick on me again.”
I challenge you to sit with your anxiety the same way you’d sit through a scary movie. Feel the symptoms and know that they will end. Remember, the more you ride through the waves of anxiety, the more tedious it’ll become.
Are you a scary movie fan? Let me know in the comments.