Control the Anxiety
You have power over your mind- not outside events.
“When I see an anxious person, I ask myself, what do they want? For if a person wasn’t wanting something outside of their own control, why would they be stricken by anxiety?” - Epictetus
Anxiety (read more here- 1, 2, and 3) has robbed me of a lot- it has taxed my potential and levied a heavy fine on the experiences that would have made my life a story worth telling.
I remember the remorse of that fine during a gathering at Maya’s apartment after a bruising week of night shifts. The room was thick with warmth, smelling of cheap Malbec and someone’s Chanel No. 5, humming with the kind of overlapping laughter that makes you desire to belong. People were having fun. And there she was- standing near the bookshelf- the woman I’d noticed three times before in the hospital cafeteria- her fingers tracing the spine of a Borges collection, dark hair falling across her cheekbone, occupying her space with an ease that suggested she had never doubted her right to exist. …
