16 Helpful Anxiety Quotes

Helpful anxiety quotes

Anxiety can be hard to deal with and have a real detrimental effect on people’s lives. If you are currently suffering, then you are not alone and with patience and understanding, just like me, you can rediscover your former self. Anxiety is not a lifetime condition and does not define you.

Below are 16 anxiety quotes that people may find helpful. All of them are written by me and not taken from anywhere else.

  1. Feeling uncomfortable when doing something new is not a sign of failure, it is not a signal to withdraw. It is a sign of growth and growth doesn’t occur without feeling uncomfortable. So don’t retreat when feeling uncomfortable, embrace it and realise that something good is happening.
  2. If you feel sad, allow yourself to feel sad, if you feel anxious, allow yourself to feel anxious, if your mind is racing, allow it to race, so much suffering is caused by resistance to what is. Learning to accept how we feel is the first step to recovery, trying to rid ourselves of discomfort and distress only serves to increase it.
  3. Fear is not the big deal many believe it to be. Once you gain some understanding of it, beyond feeling uncomfortable, you see that it has no real power. You begin to see it as a normal reaction and are able to observe how limited it really is. Freedom doesn’t come through getting rid of fear, it comes when you see through its ordinary nature enough to be no longer afraid of it.
  4. While you think that anxiety is something that happens to you, rather than something you create, you will always be looking for someone or something to fix you or get rid of it, not realising that the only way to recover resides in you.
  5. An intrusive/fearful thought is not important; it’s your belief in it that is. So allow their presence with little to no interest, without your interest and belief in them, they hold no power and wither away into nothing.
  6. Fear doesn’t exist anywhere but within your mind. The outside is only a reflection of your current mind state and not the fearful place your it makes it out to be.
  7. Allow yourself to fall into any state, trying to force a different state through personal will only creates resistance and requires a lot of mental effort, which only leads to more suffering.
  8. Each time you refuse to hide away and do something you have previously avoided then your mind and body will get used to the situation, and your reactions will weaken. The only language your mind listens to and understands is your actions. Don’t avoid life so as not to feel anxiety; the less you avoid, the more the anxious feelings die down.
  9. The less you obsess and worry about how you feel, the less inward, and more outward you become, helping you to be more present and reconnect with the world around you.
  10. No longer care what others think of you or how you come across, drop the act, the painted smile, and don’t feel the need to convince others that everything is OK. Constantly hiding how you feel just puts more pressure on you and can be extremely exhausting.
  11. When we suffer from anxiety, we have far more imaginary problems than real ones. The anxious mind likes to create scenarios and chew on problems that don’t exist.
  12. Suddenly feel overwhelmed? Don’t analyse, react or try to make sense of it, just allow it to wash over you and it will run its course.
  13. We feel that if we stop struggling with our inner state nothing will change, when in reality, the opposite is true. Does a broken leg or a scab not heal faster when left alone?
  14. Anxiety is just excess energy; you have to allow yourself to feel this energy to be free of it; this is why techniques always fail, as they are all built on suppression.
  15. When you feel physical pain it is your body’s way of letting you know there is a problem in that area, and the same is true for psychological and emotional discomfort. Suffering is not a punishment, it is mainly an inner guide that something needs attending to, that a change in behaviour or perception needs to happen. True inner peace comes through change, not through trying to suppress or get rid of anything. Suffering was by far my biggest teacher, I just needed to finally hear the message it was sending me.
  16. You believe you want liberation from your uncomfortable feelings, when in truth it is the feelings that want liberation from you. This is why you must allow uncomfortable emotions to be present without trying to suppress, fight or run away from them. You can never be free of what you refuse to feel.
Here you will find more helpful tips on anxiety