Everything You Do Is Good.

This week I felt a general increase in anxiety.

I’ve struggled with anxiety ever since I was born, and when I was a teenager I thought I was the typical claustrophobic Type A eldest child. In the middle of winter, don’t you feel like the sky is closing in and you all start sobbing? Don’t we all walk up 23 flights of stairs in our dad’s office building because the elevator might get jammed? Don’t we all want to punch the wall when someone sneezes loudly? Don’t we all understand? intellectually Does that mean you’re holding back but still can’t quit?

Since then, I’ve experienced many bedtime spirals with sweat on my forehead and my heart racing, and I’ve learned that the cause is physical as well as mental. Thanks to my favorite anti-anxiety medication, I’ve gotten better, but sometimes I feel the presence of a monkey on my back.

Of course, many people go through similar stages. The other day, one of my smartest and most talented friends called me convinced that his house was vibrating. I walked over and lay down on the bed next to her. “I don’t feel anything,” I finally said. And she smiled sadly at me and said, “Well, I guess that’s fine, because it’s just my imagination.”

In other words, the mind can generate returns that are worth the money.

Well, this week, when I felt my heart pounding, I remembered something. freddy told me last fall. One weekday evening, when I was feeling overwhelmed, he called me and asked how he could help. I couldn’t think clearly enough to answer him and stopped. “It’s okay,” he reassured me. “I want you to know that everything you do is good.”

Everything you do is good.

Those five words immediately eased my anxiety and the darkness began to lift. Is there anyone out there who suffers from or even has general anxiety? — Worried about life decisions big and small? Of course, sometimes I make a mistake and have to pivot, or mess something up and come back to fix it, but hearing that what I’m doing is at least good and done with thought and care, whether it’s “right” or “wrong” or maybe not even “right” or “wrong,” was a tonic for my anxious mind. This phrase felt like when you’re a kid lying in bed and your mother parachutes a blanket down and it swoops down on you. I feel very peaceful.

So to those of you who are clutching at your chest with love and worry, to those who are caring for a sick friend or relative, to those who are doing everything they can to care for a baby, to those who are stressed about finances or politics, or to those who are fighting an invisible battle that no one can see, I want you to take a deep breath and listen.

Everything you do is good.

Sending love, my dear ones. Please let me know how this week is going. Soxo

PS 14 Things I Learned Before I Was 40 and Tips for the Grand Canyon.

(Photo by Megan Curry/Stocksy)