Anxiety #3: Biceps and burns

Manage anxiety like you’d manage a burning muscle. If you’ve picked up a weight and are moving it, your muscles will burn. Picture yourself in the gym, doing this with a goal in mind: To grow the muscle that’s burning. Only by staying with the burning, you get stronger and grow the muscle.

Anxiety management is no different, you’re just training a muscle you didn’t know you had. It’s invisible, but it’s real. It needs to be felt, trained, and strengthened. As it gets stronger and grows, you’ll also grow in confidence. You’ll feel like you can pick up heavier weights in life (Metaphorically: Take on difficult conversations, be more honest, risk conflict and risk loss).

Remember: Stay with the burn. Notice the short breath, the tension, and the feeling in your belly. Notice these, feel them, let them burn, and let them pass. This is how you stay with it. It burns, but so does that bicep.