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• Anxiety: A feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease about something with an uncertain outcome.  Oxford Dictionary
• Anxiety: An uncomfortable feeling of nervousness or worry about something that is happening or might happen in the future. Cambridge Dictionary
• Stress,  Worry,  Fear,  Doubt,  Depression,  Suffering,  The future,  Let go of the need for certainty,  Inner peace,  Tranquility,  Equanimity

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Some anxiety in life is normal and has a role to play

• Anxiety is essential to the human condition. The confrontation with anxiety can relieve us from boredom, sharpen the sensitivity and assure the presence of tension that is necessary to preserve human existence. Rollo May
• Anxiety is your friend. It’s your body trying to tell you something, and you ought to listen.  Most likely, it’s telling you that you’re pushing yourself too hard, pushing yourself into something you don’t want.  Richard O’Connor
• Anxiety is a cognitive emotion that reveals truths that we would prefer to hide but that we need for our greater health. Soren Kierkegaard
• Enjoyment appears at the boundary between boredom and anxiety, when the challenges are just balanced with the person’s capacity to act. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
• Self-actualizing does not mean a transcendence of all human problems. Conflict, anxiety, frustration, sadness, hurt, and guilt can all be found in healthy human beings. Abraham Maslow
• Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom. Soren Kierkegaard
• Nerves and butterflies are fine – they’re a physical sign that you’re mentally ready and eager. You have to get the butterflies to fly in formation, that’s the trick.  Steve Bull
• Nerves provide me with energy. They work for me. It’s when I don’t have them, when I feel at ease, that I get worried.  Mike Nichols

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Some argue anxiety is part and parcel of art and creativity

• Where in life we do everything, we can to avoid anxiety, in art we must pursue it. Morton Feldman
• Anxiety is the essential condition of intellectual and artistic creation. Charles Frankel
• Anxiety is the hand maiden of creativity. Chuck Jones
• Art,  Creativity

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The problem is when anxiety becomes excessive and debilitating

• Anxiety is a normal reaction to stressful situations. But in some cases, it becomes excessive and can cause sufferers to dread everyday situations. Susan Heitler, Ph.D.
• Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is much more than the normal anxiety people experience day to day. Without provoking, it is chronic and exaggerated worry and tension. This disorder involves anticipating disaster, often worrying excessively about health, money, family or work. Sometimes, though, just the thought of getting through the day brings on anxiety. Neel Burton, M.D.
• To fear is one thing. To let fear grab you by the tail and swing you around is another.  Katherine Paterson

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Anxiety is rife in today’s fast paced society

• Now is the age of anxiety. H. Auden
• If we are honest with ourselves, most of us will have to admit that we live out our lives in an ocean of fear. Jon Kabat-Zinn
• When I don’t have something to worry about, I worry. Nothing comes so naturally to a human being as anxiety and worry. Brian Richardson
• One in six people suffer depression or a chronic anxiety disorder. These are not the worried well but those in severe mental pain with conditions crippling enough to prevent them living normal lives. Polly Toynbee
• Anxiety and distress, interrupted occasionally by pleasure, is the normal course of man’s existence. Joseph Wood Krutch
• Most people believe only in degrees of jeopardy and live in degrees of greater and lesser anxiety, but never in true relaxation. Paul Richards
• When I don’t have something to worry about, I worry. Nothing comes so naturally to a human being as anxiety and worry. Brian Richardson
• The fear of life is the favorite disease of the 20th century. William Lyon Phelps
• Mental health problems do not affect three or four out of every five persons but one out of one. William Menninger
• Busyness,  Haste

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One of the reasons for this is we are still saddled with a stone age mind in a digital world

• Our instinctive emotions are those that we have inherited from a much more dangerous world, and contain, therefore, a larger portion of fear than they should. Bertrand Russell
• The physical symptoms of fight or flight are what the human body has learned over thousands of years to operate efficiently and at the highest level. Anxiety is a cognitive interpretation of that physical response.  John Eliot, Ph.D.
• We’re still really saddled with a stone age mind in a digital age world. Jon Kabat-Zinn
• What are now emotional needs were once necessities for physical survival. The strength of the emotion you feel if you are rejected or belittled comes from ancient programming still resident in your modern brain. Once upon a time, loss of love, rejection, weakness and loss of territory all meant death. Now it just feels that way. Julian Short
• There are very few monsters who warrant the fear we have of them. Andre Gide
• Our Age of Anxiety is, in great part, the result of trying to do today’s jobs with yesterday’s tools. Marshall McLuhan

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As a result, our anxiety now comes more from our imagination than real physical dangers and threats

• There are more things that frighten us than injure us, and we suffer more in imagination than in reality. Seneca
• I define anxiety as experiencing failure in advance. Seth Goden
• As a rule, what is out of sight disturbs men’s minds more seriously than what they see. Julius Caesar
• Fear can, though it is not God, create something from nothing. Caspar de Aguilar
• We walk in circles, so limited by our own anxieties that we can no longer distinguish between true and false, between the gangster’s whim and the purest ideal Ingrid Bergman
• Panic is a sudden desertion of us, and a going over to the enemy of our imagination. Christian Nevell Bovee
• Imagination,  Danger

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Anxiety is influenced greatly by how we interpret and think about events in our lives

• Although many situations and encounters can be distressing or anxiety- producing, it is important to reemphasize that the way we interpret these events or situations is the crux of the problem. What we tell ourselves about the event, about ourselves, and about the other person or people involved is far more crucial in determining our feelings and our state of mind than the event itself. Robert W. Firestone
• How we perceive a situation and how we react to it is the basis of our stress. If you focus on the negative in any situation, you can expect high stress levels. However, if you try and see the good in the situation, your stress levels will greatly diminish. Catherine Pulsifer
• If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment. Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
• No one can create anger or stress within you. Only you can do that by virtue of how you process your world. Wayne Dyer
• It isn’t what happens to us that causes us to suffer; it’s what we say to ourselves about what happens. Pema Chodron
• The components of anxiety, stress, fear, and anger do not exist independently of you in the world. They simply do not exist in the physical world, even though we talk about them as if they do. Wayne Dyer
• Life is ten percent what you experience and ninety percent how you respond to it. Dorothy M. Neddermeyer
• When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change. Wayne Dyer
• Perception,  Interpretation

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The biggest cause of anxiety is a feeling of being out of control of our lives

• The biggest cause of anxiety is a feeling of being out of control of our lives, our circumstances, and worst of all, our reactions. If we feel powerless over our lives, this can lead to terrible feelings of anxiety. Amanda Harvey
• Control

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Severe anxiety often co-occurs with depression

• Anxiety so frequently co-occurs with depression that the two are thought to be twin faces of one disorder. Susan Heitler, Ph.D.
• Severe anxiety usually accompanies major depression, and it can be difficult to tell which came first. Richard O’Connor
• Depression

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An anxiety disorder has many unpleasant symptoms

• In its most troublesome forms, anxiety can lead to a debilitating fear of or desire to avoid some specific object or event that doesn’t pose a significant danger to you, regular but unpredictable panic attacks, chronic, distressing and uncontrollable bouts of worrying, regular intrusive or obsessive thoughts that you find disturbing and / or compulsive or ritualistic behaviours that you believe are necessary to prevent you from feeling anxious. Kate Cavanagh
• Emotional symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder are constant worries running through your head, intrusive thoughts about things that make you anxious; an inability to tolerate uncertainty and a pervasive feeling of apprehension or dread. Behavioral symptoms include an inability to relax or enjoy quiet time, difficulty concentrating or focusing on things, putting things off because you feel overwhelmed and avvoiding situations that make you anxious. Physical symptoms include feeling tense; having muscle tightness or body aches, trouble sleeping, feeling edgy, restless, or jumpy and stomach problems, nausea and diarrhea.  Robert Segal

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Anxiety can poison your health and happiness

• We often hear of people breaking down from overwork, but in nine out of ten they are really suffering from worry or anxiety. John Lubbock
• I believe a lot of disease comes from anxiety, loneliness. Tom Cochrane
• It has been said that our anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, but only empties today of its strength. Charles Haddon Spurgeon
• Anxiety is the poison of human life; the parent of many sins and of more miseries. In a world where everything is doubtful, and where we may be disappointed, and be blessed in disappointment, why this restless stir and commotion of mind? Can it alter the cause, or unravel the mystery of human events? Tryon Edwards
• When we feel in constant danger, as we do with depression and other stress-related diseases, we keep on pumping out stress hormones. This can lead to exhaustion, cardiac strain, kidney damage, muscle fatigue, damage to the digestive and circulatory system, loss of appetite and the ability to absorb nutrients, damage to the immune system so we’ll be more vulnerable to infection, loss of interest in sex, and the constant subjective feeling of tension and fear.  Richard O’Connor
• All too frequently, anxiety crushes not only your spirit and your potential, but your ability to take care of your mind and body. Jonathan Davidson
• Some patients I see are actually draining into their bodies the diseased thoughts of their minds. Zacharty Bercovitz
• Worry, doubt, fear and despair are the enemies which slowly bring us down to the ground and turn us to dust before we die. Douglas MacArthur
• He who fears he shall suffer, already suffers what he fears. Michel de Montaigne
• Health,  Happiness

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Anxiety can be exhausting, demotivating and distracting

• Temperamentally anxious people can have a hard time staying motivated, period, because their intense focus on their worries distracts them from their goals. Winifred Gallagher
• If, because of anxiety and self-doubt, you procrastinate and only think about working, you’ll feel more exhausted than if you’d created for hours. Eric Maisel
• We live longer than our forefathers; but we suffer more from a thousand artificial anxieties and cares. They fatigued only the muscles, we exhaust the finer strength of the nerves. Edward George Bulwer-Lytton
• Tiredness and fatigue,  Motivation

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Anxiety distorts things and can stop you from seeing and thinking clearly

• You can never become a great man or woman until you have overcome anxiety, worry, and fear. It is impossible for an anxious person, a worried one, or a fearful one to perceive truth; all things are distorted and thrown out of their proper relations by such mental states, and those who are in them cannot read the thoughts of God. Wallace D. Wattles
• 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
• Neither comprehension nor learning can take place in an atmosphere of anxiety. Rose F. Kennedy
• No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear. Edmund Burke
• If a man harbors any sort of fear, it percolates through all thinking, damages his personality and makes him a landlord to a ghost. Lloyd Douglas
• Anxiety and frustration disrupt the many cognitive processes we rely on for creative and analytical thinking. Heidi Grant Halvorson
• We now understand that higher-level thinking is more likely to occur in the brain of a student who is emotionally secure than in the brain of a student who is scared, upset, anxious, or stressed. Mawhinney and Sagan
• Anger and worry are the enemies of clear thought. Madeleine Brent
• A mind that is afraid withers away; it cannot function properly. Jiddue Jiddu Krishnamurti
• Fear is static that prevents me from hearing myself. Samuel Butler

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Anxiety is an emotion that feels very unpleasant …

• But I can hardly sit still. I keep fidgeting, crossing one leg and then the other. I feel like I could throw off sparks, or break a window–maybe rearrange all the furniture. Raymond Carver
• You know what it’s like to feel anxious – it’s horrible feeling anxious. It’s stressful having that feeling, having butterflies in your stomach, even for a day, and you don’t sleep at night. Damian Lewis
• Emotions

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… and it can greatly worsen any physical pain too

• Check your stress and anxiety levels. Anxiety will make pain worse. Try anything that reduces stress to normal levels. Try doing breathing exercises. Relaxation therapy is also helpful. Dr. Maryellen Smith
• Chronic stress or anxiety can make pain worse. It can cause your body to continue to hold muscles tighter than they need to be. At the same time, your shallow breaths bring less fresh oxygen to those overworked muscles. As you know if you clench your fist or hunch your shoulders for any length of time, tight muscles contribute to pain. Evelyn Corsini
• Physical pain

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Anxiety can negatively affect your most important relationships

• Anxiety is love’s greatest killer. It makes others feel as you might when a drowning man holds on to you. You want to save him, but you know he will strangle you with his panic. Anaïs Nin
• Principles for healthy relationships

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Anxiety can stop you from taking any risks which is a form of death and stagnation

• To venture causes anxiety, but not to venture is to lose one’s self. And to venture in the highest is precisely to be conscious of one’s self. Soren Kierkegaard
• Without risk, without the potential to fail, your life will be a shadow of what it could be. You may survive, but you will never thrive. Rebecca Rapple
• Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage. Anaïs Nin
• When you play it too safe, you’re taking the biggest risk of your life. Time is the only wealth we’re given. Barbara Sher
• What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything? Vincent van Gogh
• It’s not because things are difficult that we dare not venture. It’s because we dare not venture that they are difficult. Seneca
• There are those who are so scrupulously afraid of doing wrong that they seldom venture to do anything. Vauvenargues
• We fail more often by timidity than by over-daring. David Grayson
• Risk taking

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The truth is that too much anxiety achieves no useful purpose at all

• Anxiety’s like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do, but it doesn’t get you very far. Jodi Picoult
• Anxiety about the future never profits; we feel no evil until it comes, and when we feel it, no counsel helps; wisdom is either too early or too late. Arthur Somers Roche
• Anxiety never yet successfully bridged any chasm. Giovanni Ruffini

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Life is simply too short and precious to waste it being anxious all the time

• An Italian poet said, ‘We live in a flash of light; evening comes and it is night forever.’ It’s only a flash and we waste it. We waste it with our anxiety, our worries, our concerns, our burdens. Anthony de Mello
• I promise you nothing is as chaotic as it seems. Nothing is worth your health. Nothing is worth poisoning yourself into stress, anxiety, and fear. Steve Maraboli
• Anxiety is the interest paid on trouble before it is due. Dean William R. Inge
• Nothing in the affairs of men is worthy of great anxiety. Plato
• We live only a few conscious decades, and we fret ourselves enough for several lifetimes. Christopher Hitchens
• Life is fleeting

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Learning to identify and change any distorted, negative thinking can be helpful

• If you suffer from chronic anxiety and worries, chances are you look at the world in ways that make it seem more dangerous than it really is. Robert Segal
• Identify the thoughts that frighten you, being as detailed as possible about what scares or worries you. Then, instead of viewing your thoughts as facts, treat them as hypotheses you’re testing out. As you examine and challenge your worries and fears, you’ll develop a more balanced perspective.  Robert Segal
• Thinking can contribute to anxiety. But thoughts are just thoughts, they aren’t the truth. Change critical thoughts into empowering ones. Write down the anxious thoughts: it helps get them out of your head. When you see them in black and white you see how silly they are. It gives you a reality check. Cynthia Hickman
• It takes but one positive thought when given a chance to survive and thrive to overpower an entire army of negative thoughts. Robert H. Schuller
• Negativity,  Pessimism

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Cognitive therapy is a widely respected way to reduce the power of negative beliefs and thoughts

• Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is a type of therapy which works to alter common patterns of negative thinking called cognitive distortions in order to eliminate depression. Numerous studies have shown that CBT is an effective treatment for both depression and anxiety. Nancy Schimelpfening
• Cognitive psychotherapy boils down to learning the habit of looking for and uprooting self- disturbing thinking whenever you notice you are disturbed. Kevin Everett FitzMaurice
• When we identify an irrational thought (a cognitive distortion), we change the way we think about an event and thereby change the way we feel. Tal Ben- Shahar
• Cognitive Behavioural Therapy has two advantages over medication: there are no side effects, and If you can change our unhealthy beliefs and thoughts and replace them with more healthy and realistic beliefs and thoughts, you can therefore change your emotions (anxiety) and hence your behaviour. Nancy Schimelpfening
• Positive thinking

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Others argue you shouldn’t focus too much on negative emotions but focus mostly on action instead …

• The over-examined life is not worth living. Kevin Everett FitzMaurice
• You don’t have to control your thoughts. You just have to stop letting them control you. Dan Millman
• Many traditional approaches to anxiety advocate “working on”your thoughts – trying to change or even stop them. But Morita’s approach was based on the strategy of accepting them and shifting one’s attention to something more constructive. Rather than fixing our mental ruminations, we work on doing the things that help us live a fulfilled and meaningful life. We simply take our anxiety with us as we strive to live well and do what’s important. Our anxiety no longer prevents us from taking action.  Gregg Krech
• Our natural response to feeling anxious is to try to find a way to feel better. This sounds reasonable but it sets us off on an endless loop of focusing on our feelings and trying to fix them directly with our mind. Generally, this doesn’t work – what you pay attention to grows. Our feelings fluctuate — all feelings, including anxiety. We notice this process. We accept whatever feelings arise. We stop fighting with the feelings we don’t like and take them with us as we go about our work in the world. As we learn to coexist with our anxiety, the anxiety loses its power over us. We conquer anxiety through acceptance, activity and purpose. Gregg Krech
• The more we pay attention to our symptoms (our anxiety, for example) the more we fall into this trap. When we are absorbed by what we are doing, we are not anxious because our attention is engaged by activity. But when we try to “understand” or “fix” or “work through” feelings and issues, our self- focus is heightened and exercised. The answer lies in practicing and mastering an attitude of being in touch with the outside world. This is called a reality- oriented attitude, which means, in short, liberation from self-centeredness.  Takahisa Kora, M.D
• Action

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… for nothing diminishes anxiety faster than decisive, committed action …

• Nothing diminishes anxiety faster than action. Walter Anderson
• Action conquers fear. Peter Nivio Zarlenga
• Anxiety is energy that cannot be used now. When you focus that trapped energy on action in the present moment, you release it and experience excitement and effectiveness. Neil Fiore
• When thinking won’t cure fear, action will. W. Clement Stone
• When we commit to action, to actually doing something rather than feeling trapped by events, the stress becomes manageable. Greg Anderson
• The most constructive way to influence your emotions is to do something. Dan Millman
• Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy. Dale Carnegie
• Concern should drive us into action, not into depression. Karen Horney
• We need to practice acting in spite of fear, in spite of doubt, in spite of worry, in spite of uncertainty, in spite of inconvenience, in spite of discomfort, and even to practice acting when we’re not in the mood to act. If you are willing to do only what’s easy, life will be hard. But if you’re willing to do what’s hard, life will be easy.  Harv Eker
• Once a decision is made and we begin acting toward it, dismiss absolutely all anxiety and fear about the outcome. Over- investigation and further thinking can be harmful and prevent focus on the task at hand. Dale Carnegie
• When thought becomes excessively painful, action is the finest remedy. Salman Rushdie
• You have much more control over your behavior than you do over your thoughts or emotions so paradoxically the best way to master your emotions is to let them be, stay relaxed, and focus on constructive action.
• Research shows that although we think that we act because of the way we feel, in fact, we often feel because of the way we act. Marc and Angel Chernoff
• Act the way that you want to feel. Gretchen Rubin
• No one is moved to act, or resolves to speak a single word, who does not hope by means of this action or word to release anxiety from his spirit. Ali ibn-Hazm
• You can’t wring your hands and roll up your sleeves at the same time. Pat Schroeder
• Decision making

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… whereas, postponement, hesitation and inaction only serve to increase anxiety

• Hesitation only enlarges, magnifies the fear. Take action promptly. Be decisive. David J. Schwartz
• Action cures fear. Indecision, postponement, on the other hand, fertilize fear. David Schwartz
• To fight fear, act. To increase fear–wait, put off postpone. David Joseph Schwartz
• If, because of anxiety and self-doubt, you procrastinate and only think about working, you’ll feel more exhausted than if you’d created for hours. Eric Maisel
• Procrastination

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The secret and challenge is to take action despite your anxious feelings…

• Act with the anxiety. Act as if you aren’t anxious. Function with it. Slow down if you have to, but keep going. Breathe slowly and normally. If you run from the situation your anxiety will go down, but your fear will go up. If you stay, both your anxiety and your fear will go down. Robert Segal
• I have not ceased being fearful, but I have ceased to let fear control me. I have accepted fear as part of life – specifically the fear of change, the fear of the unknown and I have gone ahead despite the pounding in my heart that says turn back, turn back, you’ll die if you venture too far. Erica Jong

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… for the surest way to overcome fear is to expose yourself to what you are afraid of

• One of the best ways to tackle anxiety is to face your fears. This is especially so for phobias or fears of specific events, situations or items. Over time you’ll find that most fears start to reduce over time, the more you put yourself into the fearful situations. Kate Cavanagh
• Gather experience… Look at what you should not look at. A feeling of anxiety is the sure and certain evidence that you should do this. Clive Barker
• The only way out is through. Robert Frost
• We cannot find peace if we are afraid of the windstorms of life. Elizabeth Kubler- Ross
• To run away from fear is only to increase it. Jiddu Krishnamurti
• You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do. Anna Eleanor Roosevelt
• Do you want to know the surefire way to stay anxious? Don’t do the thing that makes you nervous! Larina Kase

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Do not resist and flail against your anxiety for that will just make it worse

• If you aren’t willing to have it, you will. Steven Hayes
• What you resist, persists. Carl Jung
• The resistance to the unpleasant situation is the root of suffering. Ram Dass
• You can’t argue with what is. Well, you can, but if you do, you suffer. Eckhart Tolle
• Stress happens when the mind resists what is. Dan Millman
• Non-resistance

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Instead, accept your anxiety and make friends with it

• Accept the anxiety. Welcome it. Don’t fight it. Replace your rejection, anger, and hatred of it with acceptance. By resisting, you’re prolonging the unpleasantness of it. Instead, flow with it. Don’t make it responsible for how you think, feel, and act. Robert Segal
• Make friends and peace with anxiety immediately. Talk to yourself and the anxiety reassuringly: It’s ok. I’m listening. I want to hear what you have to say. I know you’re just trying to get my attention and that the more directly and peacefully I listen, the sooner you’ll stop repeating yourself. Ariella Baston
• Acceptance

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Investigate the nature and sources of your anxiety

• Getting clear on what you’re scared of can instantly defuse ticking anxiety bombs. Danielle LaPorte
• If I knew what I was so anxious about, I wouldn’t be so anxious. Mignon McLaughlin
• Write about it. The slower pace of writing and full engagement of your senses helps you travel down the path of the anxiety message to its source.  We don’t always know where our anxiety is coming from, so we have to take the time to dig and poke. Ariella Baston
• While we ignore, deny, suppress, or avoid our feelings, we allow them free reign over our minds and our lives. By refusing to confront and examine the anxiety we feel, and the roots of the problem, we will only find that we become more anxious. Amanda Harvey
• Self-knowledge,  Reflection

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Observe your anxiety mindfully without resistance or judgement

• Watch your anxiety. Look at it without judgment – not good, not bad. Rate it on a 0-to-10 scale and watch it go up and down. Be detached. Remember, you’re not your anxiety. The more you can separate yourself from the experience, the more you can just watch it. Jeanne Segal
• Non-resistance,  Awareness

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Mindfulness meditation is a powerful way to make anxiety more manageable

• Mindfulness means focusing on one activity at a time, so forget multi- tasking! Staying in the present- tense can help promote relaxation and provide a buffer against anxiety and depression. Claire Michaels
• If you integrate meditation with psychotherapy or cognitive- behavioral classes, you will find that you can maintain low degrees of depression and anxiety long after your therapy ends—but again, only if you continue the meditation practice of staying relaxed, alert and focused. Andrew Newberg
• The benefits of meditation include a decrease in anxiety, in vulnerability from pain, and in the tendency toward depression and anger, as well as strengthening the power of attention, boosting the immune system, and increasing one’s general well- Matthieu Ricard
• Many types of meditation have been shown to reduce anxiety. Mindfulness meditation, in particular, shows promise for anxiety relief. Research shows that mindfulness meditation can actually change your brain. With regular practice, meditation boosts activity on the left side of the prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain responsible for feelings of serenity and joy. Robert Segal
• Mindfulness is the here-and-now approach to living that makes daily life richer and more meaningful. It’s approaching life like a child, without passing judgment on what occurs. Mindfulness means focusing on one activity at a time, so forget multi- tasking! Staying in the present-tense can help promote relaxation and provide a buffer against anxiety and depression. Claire Michaels
• Where there is peace and meditation, there is neither anxiety nor doubt. Francis of Assisi
• Meditation did not relieve me of my anxiety so much as flesh it out. It took my anxious response to the world, about which I felt a lot of confusion and shame, and let me understand it more completely. Perhaps the best way to phrase it is to say that meditation showed me that the other side of anxiety is desire. They exist in relationship to each other, not independently. Mark Epstein
• Anxiety races thoughts and can be very distracting. With a rushing mind, it’s hard to hear the anxiety message and follow it back to its source. Meditation helps tremendously. Ariella Baston
• Let go of emotions through mindfulness

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Any technique that allows you to fully relax can be a very useful tool to combat anxiety

• One simply cannot be relaxed and stressed at the same time. Try it. You can’t. Relaxation drives out anxiety and vice versa. Robert Emmons
• Relaxation drains away anxiety like pulling the plug in a bathtub. Rick Hanson
• Practice relaxation techniques. When practiced regularly, relaxation techniques such as mindfulness meditation, progressive muscle relaxation, and deep breathing can reduce anxiety symptoms and increase feelings of relaxation and emotional well- being. Jeanne Segal
• Anxiety is more than just a feeling. It’s the body’s physical “fight or flight” reaction to a perceived threat. Your heart pounds, you breathe faster, your muscles tense up, and you feel light-headed. When you’re relaxed, the complete opposite happens. Your heart rate slows down, you breathe slower and more deeply, your muscles relax, and your blood pressure stabilizes. Since it’s impossible to be anxious and relaxed at the same time, strengthening your body’s relaxation response is a powerful anxiety- relieving tactic. Robert Segal
• When anxiety takes hold, progressive muscle relaxation can help you release muscle tension and take a “time out” from your worries. The technique involves systematically tensing and then releasing different muscle groups in your body. As your body relaxes, your mind will follow. Robert Segal
• Yoga has a sly, clever way of short circuiting the mental patterns that cause anxiety. Baxter Bell
• Relaxation

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This includes the practice of conscious, deep breathing

• If you want to conquer the anxiety of life, live in the moment, live in the breath. Amit Ray
• When you’re anxious, you breathe faster. This hyperventilation causes symptoms such as dizziness, breathlessness, light-headedness, and tingly hands and feet. These physical symptoms are frightening, leading to further anxiety and panic. But by breathing deeply from the diaphragm, you can reverse these symptoms and calm yourself down. Robert Segal
• Slow breathing is like an anchor in the midst of an emotional storm: the anchor won’t make the storm goes away, but it will hold you steady until it passes. Russ Harris
• Anxiety is a deep conscious breath away from dissolving. Michael Dolan
• Breathing

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Use calming affirmations

• Devise an affirmation — a short, clear, positive statement that focuses on your coping abilities. Affirmations are a good way to silence the self-critical voice we all carry with us that only adds to our stress.  Allen Elkin, Ph.D.
• Affirmations

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One of the best ways to reduce anxiety is to learn to worry less

• Once you’ve given up the idea that your worrying somehow helps you, you can start to deal with your worry and anxiety in more productive ways. This may involve challenging irrational worrisome thoughts, learning how to postpone worrying, and learning to accept uncertainty in your life. Robert Segal
• Do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day’s own trouble be sufficient for the day. Samuel Butler
• I vow to let go of all worries and anxiety in order to be light and free. Thich Nhat Hanh
• Anxiety about the future never profits; we feel no evil until it comes, and when we feel it, no counsel helps; wisdom is either too early or too late. Arthur Somers Roche
• Ignore the voice of worry and focus on eliciting the relaxation response instead. Robert Emmons
• Worry

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To worry less, schedule a fixed time for worry

• Create an anxiety worry period. Choose one or two 10 minute “worry periods” each day, time you can devote to anxiety. During your worry period, focus only on negative, anxious thoughts without trying to correct them. The rest of the day, however, is to be designated free of anxiety. When anxious thoughts come into your head during the day, write them down and “postpone “them to your worry period. Jeanne Segal
• By all means take thought for the tomorrow, yes, careful thought and planning and preparation. But have no anxiety. Do it consciously in scheduled blocks of time. Dale Carnegie (adapted)

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Use your worry period to turn worry into constructive, problem solving

• Problem solving involves evaluating a situation, coming up with concrete steps for dealing with it, and then putting the plan into action. Worrying, on the other hand, rarely leads to solutions. Jeanne Segal
• Avoidance of problems exacerbates anxiety about them. By contrast, facing the problem head- on, frightening as that may seem, enables you to pursue solutions to the dilemma. Solving problems cuts anxiety off at its source.   Susan Heitler, Ph.D.
• Don’t be fooled into thinking worry is helpful. Turn worrying into problem-solving whenever you can. Kate Cavanagh
• Writing provides perspective. Divide a piece of paper into two parts. On the left side, list the stressors you may be able to change, and on the right, list the ones you can’t. Change what you can, and stop fretting over what you can’t. Paul J. Rosch, M.D.
• A good way to begin to address your anxiety problems head-on is to list all thoughts that stir up anxious feelings. Once you’ve listed the thoughts, circle back through the list, begin asking good questions to get information with regard to your concerns, and then proceed toward creating solutions. Susan Heitler, Ph.D.
• Problem solving

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Running away from problems exposes you to the greater anxiety of not knowing and loss of control

• Essentially, almost all humans are born with a fear of the unknown. It casts a pall of anxiety which pushes us into the arms of religions and soothsayers and their made-up answers. Mario Stinger
• Where everything is bad it must be good to know the worst. Francis H. Bradley
• Suspense is worse than disappointment. Robert Burns
• When one has too great a dread of what is impending, one feels some relief when the trouble has come. Joseph Joubert
• Somehow our devils are never quite what we expect when we meet them face to face. Nelson DeMille
• Face your challenges head on

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Learn to accept and let go of any problems that cannot be solved

• If you can solve your problem, then what is the need of worrying? If you cannot solve it, then what is the use of worrying? Shantideva
• Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Serenity Prayer
• Acceptance,  Letting go

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Realise you cannot control everything in life and sometimes you need to go with the flow …

• A great deal of anxiety is caused by trying to hang on to the illusion that we can control life, when we really just need to let go and trust that the universe is taking us exactly where we need to go. Trust that we have the strength and the wisdom to handle whatever circumstances come our way. Amanda Harvey
• Go with the flow

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… for accepting uncertainty is essential for any kind of inner peace

• Accept uncertainty. Unfortunately, worrying about all the things that could go wrong doesn’t make life any more predictable—it only keeps you from enjoying the good things happening in the present. Learn to accept uncertainty and not require immediate solutions to life’s problems. Jeanne Segal
• The inability to tolerate uncertainty plays a huge role in anxiety and worry. Chronic worriers can’t stand doubt or unpredictability. They need to know with 100 percent certainty what’s going to happen. Worrying is seen as a way to predict what the future has in store—a way to prevent unpleasant surprises and control the outcome. The problem is, it doesn’t work. Robert Segal
• Let go of the need for certainty

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Don’t sweat the small stuff or take it all quite so seriously

• A great many worries can be diminished by realizing the unimportance of the matter which is causing anxiety. Bertrand Russell
• If you treat every situation as a life and death matter, you’ll die a lot of times. Dean Smith
• Life is too important to take too seriously. Richard Carlson
• Rule number one is, don’t sweat the small stuff. Rule number two is, it’s all small stuff. Robert Eliot
• Let’s not allow ourselves to be upset by small things we should despise and forget. Remember “Life is too short to be little.” Dale Carnegie
• ‘De minimus non curat lex’— the law does not concern itself with trifles. And neither should the worrier—if he wants peace of mind. Dale Carnegie
• Few things matter much; most things do not matter at all. Bishop Leadbeater
• The greatest cause of ulcers is mountain-climbing over molehills. Maxwell Maltz
• If you break your neck, if you have nothing to eat, if your house is on fire- then you got a problem. Everything else is inconvenience. Robert Fulghum

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Don’t get too attached to your expectations

• There is nothing scary about life if you are not attached to results. Neale Donald Walsch
• If a warrior is to succeed at anything, the success must come gently, with a great deal of effort but with no stress or obsession. Carlos Castaneda
• Get rid of your fear of failure, your tensions about succeeding, you will be yourself. Relaxed. You wouldn’t be driving with your brakes on. That’s what would happen. Anthony De Mello
• The awakened sages call a person wise when all his undertakings are free from anxiety about results. Bhagavad Gita
• Attachment creates fear that gets in your way: What if I lose? What if the deal doesn’t go through? What if I’m rejected? Your belief that everything must work out exactly as you want it to with no glitches creates enormous pressure. Nonattachment, on the other hand, works like magic. It allows you to have fun in your efforts, to enjoy the process. It takes the pressure off. You win regardless of the outcome. Richard Carlson
• Expectation

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Learn to focus less on the future by living more in the present

• Holding the future in the immediate foreground, as if the future is in your present, invites anxiety problems. “What if….?” future- focused thoughts generate fear without problem- solving. By contrast, living in the present, in the here- and-  now, promotes a state of flow. Occasional brief glances ahead can clarify where you are aiming and enable you to plan a general strategy of how to get there. Overall, however, staying in Now promotes feelings of well-  Susan Heitler, Ph.D.
• All negativity is caused by denial of the present. Unease, anxiety, tension, stress, worry—all forms of fear—are caused by too much future, and not enough presence. Guilt, regret, resentment, grievances, sadness, bitterness, and all forms of non-forgiveness are caused by too much past, and not enough presence. Eckhart Tolle
• Focus on the present, to reduce anxiety and stress. Leo Babauta
• We should not fret for what is past, nor should we be anxious about the future; men of discernment deal only with the present moment. Chanakya
• Have no anxiety for the tomorrow. Jesus
• Anxiety is the gap between now and later. Fritz Perls
• The mind that is anxious about the future is miserable. Seneca
• The source of anxiety lies in the future. If you can keep the future out of mind, you can forget your worries. Milan Kundera
• I define anxiety as experiencing failure in advance. Seth Goden
• The source of anxiety lies in the future. If you can keep the future out of mind, you can forget your worries. Milan Kundera
• True happiness is… to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future. Lucius Annaeus Seneca
• Never bear more than one kind of trouble at a time. Some people bear three – all they have had, all they have now, and all they expect to have.  Edward Everett Hale
• The past is no good to us. The future is full of anxiety. Only the present is real–the here-and- now. Seize the day. Soal Bellow
• Live in the present

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Get your diet right

• Start the day right with breakfast, and continue with frequent small meals throughout the day. Going too long without eating leads to low blood sugar, which can make you feel anxious and irritable. Eat plenty of complex carbohydrates such as whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. Not only do complex carbs stabilize blood sugar, they also boost serotonin, a neurotransmitter with calming effects. Robert Segal
• Diet

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Reduce alcohol and nicotine and caffeine

• Reduce alcohol and nicotine. They lead to more anxiety, not less. Jeanne Segal
• Stop drinking or cut back on caffeinated beverages, including soda, coffee, and tea. Caffeine can increase anxiety, interfere with sleep, and even provoke panic attacks. Reduce the amount of refined sugar you eat, too. Sugary snacks and desserts cause blood sugar to spike and then crash, leaving you feeling emotionally and physically drained. Robert Segal

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Make time for exercise for it is a natural anxiety reliever

• Exercise is a natural stress buster and anxiety reliever. To achieve the maximum benefit, aim for at least 30 minutes of aerobic exercise on most days. Jeanne Segal
• The physical symptoms of anxiety are caused by the ‘flight-fight’ response, which floods the body with adrenaline and other stress chemicals. Exercise burns up stress chemicals and promotes relaxation. Robert Cooper, Ph.D.
• Michael Craig Miller, M.D., summarizes what scientists have been uncovering for several decades, regular exercise ‘improves your mood, decreases anxiety, improves sleep and resilience in the face of stress and raises self- esteem.’ Shawn Phillips
• Exercise

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Get plenty of sleep

• Get enough sleep. A lack of sleep can exacerbate anxious thoughts and feelings, so try to get 7 to 9 hours of quality sleep a night. Jeanne Segal
• Anxiety and worry can cause insomnia, as anyone whose racing thoughts have kept them up at night can attest. But lack of sleep can also contribute to anxiety. When you’re sleep deprived, your ability to handle stress is compromised. When you’re well rested, it’s much easier to keep your emotional balance, a key factor in coping with anxiety and stopping worry. Robert Segal
• The minute anyone’s getting anxious I say, You must eat and you must sleep. They’re the two vital elements for a healthy life. Francesca Annis
• Sleep

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Take medication in the short term if necessary

• A variety of medications, including benzodiazepines and antidepressants, are used in the treatment of anxiety disorders. But medication is most effective when combined with behavioral therapy and anxiety self- help strategies. Medication may sometimes be used in the short-term to relieve severe anxiety symptoms so that other forms of therapy can be pursued. Jeanne Segal

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Use distraction for short term relief

• There is a place for cognitive-behavioral techniques and mindfulness. But when you reach a point of disabling anxiety, it can be more beneficial to try to get out of your head as much as possible. Work on a word puzzle or watch a movie instead, and surround myself with people as much as possible.  Therese J. Borchard

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Learn to manage your time and priorities effectively

• If you let yourself get caught up in the urgencies of the moment, without feeling comfortable about what you’re not dealing with, the result is frustration and anxiety. David Allen
• Anxiety is caused by lack of control, organization, preparation, and action. David Kekich
• Time management

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Live within your means and get your finances under control

• Whether you experience great peace of mind or constant anxiety will depend on getting your finances under control. Robert Allen
• Thousands upon thousands are yearly brought into a state of real poverty by their great anxiety not to be thought poor. William Corbett
• Frugality,  Saving

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Stop being such a perfectionist

• To be in harmony with the wholeness of things is not to have anxiety over imperfections. Dogen Zenji
• Understanding the difference between healthy striving and perfectionism is critical to laying down the shield and picking up your life. Research shows that perfectionism hampers success. In fact, it’s often the path to depression, anxiety, addiction, and life paralysis. Brené Brown
• Research shows that perfectionism hampers success. In fact, it’s often the path to depression, anxiety, addiction, and life paralysis. Brené Brown
• Perfectionism

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Keep your integrity by sticking to the promises you make to yourself

• The sense of anxiety and guilt doesn’t come from having too much to do; it’s the automatic result of breaking agreements with yourself. David Allen
• Integrity,  Commitment

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Laugh and smile more

• Good humour is a tonic for mind and body. It is the best antidote for anxiety and depression. It is a business asset. It attracts and keeps friends. It lightens human burdens. It is the direct route to serenity and contentment. Grenville Kleiser
• Smile, it’s free therapy. Douglas Horton
• Smiling transmits nerve impulses from the facial muscles to the limbic system, a key emotional centre in the brain, tilting the neurochemical balance toward calm. Robert Cooper, Ph.D.
• Laughter,  Smiling

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Build faith and meaning through spiritual practices

• More often than people realize, psychological distress is caused by some combination of lack of meaning, lack of social engagement, and lack of spirituality. Jennifer Hamady
• By altering the neurochemistry of the brain, spiritual practices bestow a sense of peace, happiness, and security, while decreasing symptoms of anxiety, depression and stress. Andrew Newberg
• Anxiety is the mark of spiritual insecurity. Thomas Merton
• The experience of separateness arouses anxiety; it is, indeed, the source of all anxiety. Erich Fromm
• Every tomorrow has two handles. We can take hold of it with the handle of anxiety or the handle of faith. Henry Ward Beecher
• Each moment of worry, anxiety or stress represents lack of faith in miracles, for they never cease. F. Hodge
• Anxiety is the rust of life, destroying its brightness and weakening its power. A childlike and abiding trust in Providence is its best preventive and remedy.
• Faith,  Trust in God

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Treat life as an experiment and see mistakes and failure as lessons

• Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment.  The more experiments you make the better.  What if they are a little course, and you may get your coat soiled or torn?  What if you do fail, and get fairly rolled in the dirt once or twice. Up again, you shall never be so afraid of a tumble.  Ralph Waldo Emerson
• The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one. Elbert Hubbard
• Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker. Failure is delay not defeat. It is a temporary detour, not a dead end. Failure is something we can avoid only by saying nothing, doing nothing and being nothing. Dennis Waitley
• Experimentation,  Mistakes,  Failure,  Learning

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Much of our anxiety stems from fear of rejection, criticism or ridicule in our dealings with others

• The need to be normal is the predominant anxiety disorder in modern life. Thomas Moore
• After all, what is happiness? Love, they tell me. But love doesn’t bring and never has brought happiness. On the contrary, it’s a constant state of anxiety, a battlefield; it’s sleepless nights, asking ourselves all the time if we’re doing the right thing. Real love is composed of ecstasy and agony. Paulo Coelho
• Once you become self-conscious, there is no end to it; once you start to doubt, there is no room for anything else. Mignon McLaughlin
• The fear of being laughed at makes cowards of us all. Mignon McLaughlin
• Maybe everyone in the whole damn world is scared of each other. John Steinbeck
• Love is full of anxious fears. Ovid
• Shyness has a strange element of narcissism, a belief that how we look, how we perform, is truly important to other people. André Dubus
• The shy and the extroverted have this in common – that they both fancy they are the centre of attention. Robert Brault
• Nothing so much prevents our being natural as the desire to seem so. François Duc de La Rochefoucauld
• Great friendship is never without anxiety. Marie de Rabutin-Chantal
• There is such an emphasis in society on fitting in and being popular, and this in itself can create a tremendous sense of stress. Rather than feeling comfortable to be ourselves, and to relate to others on a level of genuine interest, caring, and openness, a great deal of the time we are all so concerned with how we appear to others, that we are unable to make any real connections at all. Amanda Harvey
• Fear,  Rejection,  Criticism,  Approval seeking

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Here are some tips for reducing anxiety in your interpersonal relationships

• Ask instead of interpreting or assuming. When people try to guess what others are thinking, their guesses are almost always wrong, and almost always more negative than the actual reality of the situation.  Asking good questions, by contrast, gathers reliable and relieving data. Even bad news is better than no news because it can lead to building realistic clear action plans. Susan Heitler, Ph.D.
• Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted. Ralph Waldo Emerson
• We probably wouldn’t worry about what people think of us if we could know how seldom they do. Olin Miller
• Other people’s opinion of you do not have to become your reality. Les Brow
• The way you overcome shyness is to become so wrapped up in something that you forget to be afraid. Lady Bird Johnson
• By cultivating a genuine interest in others, and keeping a caring and compassionate mindset in our interactions, we can begin to relate to others in a real and rewarding way. The paradox is that the less our concentration is on ourselves when we are interacting with others, the better we end up feeling. Amanda Harvey
• Men are not against you; they are merely for themselves. Gene Fowler
• Anxiety in human life is what squeaking and grinding are in machinery that is not oiled. In life, trust is the oil. Henry Ward Beecher
• What other people think of me is none of my business. Dennis Kucinich
• Principles for healthy relationships

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Learn to love and trust yourself more

• If you have been telling yourself for years that you are not smart enough, attractive enough, or interesting enough for people to like you, then in order to begin overcoming social anxiety, you need to work at changing these beliefs. Amanda Harvey
• Your problem is you’re… too busy holding onto your unworthiness. Ram Dass
• Anxiety is fear of oneself. Wilhelm Stekel
• Our stresses, anxieties, pains, and problems arise because we do not see the world, others, or even ourselves as worthy of love. Prem Prakash
• Building a genuine and solid sense of self-esteem can go a long way towards helping to overcome social anxiety. Amanda Harvey
• Self-love,  Trust

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Spend less time with people who make you feel anxious

• Spend less time with people who make you anxious. Is there someone in your life who drags you down or always seems to leave you feeling stressed? Think about cutting back on the time you spend with that person. Robert Segal
• Surround yourself with positive people

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Establish strong, loving, supportive relationships

• Having strong social relationships strengthens the immune system, extends life (more than does quitting smoking), speeds recovery from surgery, and reduces the risks of depression and anxiety disorders. Jonathan Haidt
• You get rid of a certain anxiety by realizing you’re not alone. Olivia Mellan
• Connection,  Principles for healthy relationships

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• I’ve developed a new philosophy… I only dread one day at a time. Charles Schulz
• I try not to worry about the future — so I take each day just one anxiety attack at a time. Tom Wilson
• Stupidity is without anxiety. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
• I’m the Descartes of anxiety; I panic therefore I am. Richard Lewis
• I’m as anxious as a one-eyed cat watching two rat holes. Country expression
• If I knew what I was so anxious about I wouldn’t be so anxious. Mignon McLaughlin
• Looking to any angry, anxious, or otherwise stressed emotional state to help you sort out the pain you’re in is like trying to organize your monthly bills by throwing them into a blender. Guy Finley
• We are always more anxious to be distinguished for a talent which we do not possess than to be praised for the fifteen which we do possess. Mark Twain
• When I turned two I was really anxious because I’d doubled my age in a year and I thought if this keeps up by the time I’m six I’ll be ninety. Steven Wright
• The only people who become wealthy by being concerned with the future are insurance companies. Leo Buscaglia
• I worry about the possible existence of things that would worry me if I knew about them. Ashleigh Brilliant
• Don’t take life too seriously because you’ll never get out of it alive. Elbert Hubbard
• Worry is the darkroom in which negatives can develop. Wanda E. Brunstetter
• Remember, today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday. Dale Carnegie
• My life has been filled with terrible misfortune; most of which never happened. Michel de Montaigne
• Do not try to solve all life’s problems at once – learn to dread each day as it comes. Donald Kaul
• We experience moments absolutely free from worry. These brief respites are called panic.  Cullen Hightower
• Drag your thoughts away from your troubles… by the ears, by the heels, or any other way you can manage it. Mark Twain
• Set aside half an hour every day to do all your worrying; then take a nap during this period.
• He’s the kind of guy who makes coffee nervous.
• He’s too nervous to kill himself; he wears his seat belt in a drive-in movie. Walter Matthau
• If you ever feel like you’re on the verge of a nervous breakdown just follow these simple rules: first calm down; second come over and wash my car; third shine all my shoes; there isn’t that better? Jack Handey
• Nervous as a cow with a bucktooth calf. Country expression
• One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one’s work is terribly important. Bertrand Russell
• There is no such thing as inner peace; there is only nervousness and death. Fran Lebowitz
• This guy makes coffee nervous. Bobby Heenan
• You seem nervous. I could give you something for that. Ah but you know what? I’m not supposed to have sex with my patients. Chris Parnell
• Zeal: A certain nervous disorder afflicting the young and inexperienced. Ambrose Bierce

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