Don't I know you?

O13

You wake up panicked early in the morning. You wonder, is this it? Is this all I am supposed to be? Isn’t there more? You’re anxious about work, deadlines, your relationship, your health, your finances, your life, your faith, the book you want to write, the things you’ve yet to accomplish; your purpose. Your mind wanders and you find it hard to focus. You are scattered in every conceivable direction and you find it impossible to escape the labyrinth of your own routines. For years, you have stewed in these emotions and they haunt you. This anxiety, this fear that you have become so accustomed to, it is an emotion begging to be released- a problem that you deeply want to solve. I know you, because you are me. At different stages in my life, I have felt all of these things and I find an odd solace in knowing that I’m not alone. These are things that so many of us experience and struggle with throughout our lives. With no outlet, these things build inside and our emotions of hope and ambition atrophy into anxiety and resentment.

Yet, artists learn to harness these emotions into the actions of writing and drawing, sculpting and building. We create to channel emotion and to understand. You can learn to harness these emotions, too. You can choose to confront these monsters and force them to relent.

The intensity of your anxiety is the difference between your desire for a resolution and your ability to affect change. Our anxiety and despair are often the result of poor behaviors and poor habits that find us responding to each new crisis. When you live in a constant state of emergency, anxiety will always haunt you. These feelings are real, but they are often monsters of our own making. They can be tamed and even used to motivate, inspire and compel us to become something more.  But before you can take action, you need a system and the tools to guide your wandering mind. You will develop these inner thoughts into outward expressions and find your personal voice along the way.