How to Get Over Anxiety

Discover the Gateway to Serenity

Did you know that recent surveys reveal that Americans are experiencing an epidemic of anxiety over a variety of social issues, including personal safety, climate change, and various epidemics? That’s one report I found from a recent poll conducted by the American Psychiatry Association.

The anxiety epidemic isn’t limited to Americans; it’s worldwide. Millions of us are affected by anxiety disorders. These disorders significantly impact our quality of life. They also create a massive demand for effective treatments.

Whether the media, social media companies, and big pharma play a role in driving the craze for prescription medications to deal with anxiety or not, it’s up to us to find healthy ways to get over anxiety, manage stress, and train our minds and bodies to be our best given the circumstances.

“You don’t have to control your thoughts. You just have to stop letting them control you.” — Dan Millman

We can’t control the uncontrollable. But as we age, we can rewrite our scripts and stories. Rewriting scripts takes practice. For example, I used to be self-critical and a control freak as a younger man. I got upset with myself and others if I didn’t get my way or get what I expected.

Millions of us are losing our minds. When we’ve grown tired of losing our minds too much, we start to get them back. We will get the appropriate help. We will do the work. We will accept our part to improve ourselves.

We begin to get our minds back by training our minds to focus on the positive. It’s as if we can reprogram ourselves. If our minds are like the hard drives found in computers, we can rewrite the programming over time.

“Smile, breathe, and go slowly.” — Thich Nhat Hanh

We can learn the Wu-wei of life; effortless living. That takes lots of practice, too.

We are unhappy mainly because we think of ourselves, our pains, struggles, unmet needs, and wants. We torment ourselves without realizing it.

Instead, we can train ourselves to smile, breathe, and be more present.

“Why are you unhappy? Because 99.9 percent of everything you think, and of everything you do, is for yourself — and there isn’t one.” — Wei Wu Wei

Acceptance becomes the gateway to serenity, given the willingness to train our minds. We train our minds and our awareness to rise above the people, places, and things that bother us.

These things are far beyond our direct control. We can only control how we see things and react by adjusting our perspectives over time. The way to adjust our perspective on anything that bothers us is to step back and away. We change what we see by changing how we see things.

“The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.” — William James

With age, I’ve learned to choose thoughts of faith, service, duty, love, devotion, and charity instead of thinking about myself. We can be so selfish when we are younger. I know I was one of the most selfish humans alive.

That had to change. There are always consequences for being selfish and too self-centered. We get stuck in our heads. 

We must stop comparing and start accepting, loving, and giving more.

Giving is the art of life. Find your art. Give to others. Share more.

We can connect more meaningfully with strangers, seek to remove others' anxiety, and watch ours melt away. We can go deeper with our friends and family, meeting them where they are.

We can learn to love what we hate. It works when we practice loving it all, especially when we hate a person, place, or thing. We give it love and compassion instead.

Believe in something greater than ourselves, and we will be on our way to feeling better. It’s called faith. Faith is believing in our God-given minds to surrender and turn them over to the power that remembers to breathe us when we forget.

“Do not anticipate trouble or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight.” — Benjamin Franklin

Stay present. If we trust everything happens for good reasons, more will be revealed. It’s our job to see the good in all things, to let go of control that makes us nuts, and to be kinder.

“No amount of anxiety can change the future. No amount of regret can change the past.” — Karen Salmansohn

If there is one word we can remember to ease our anxiety, it’s acceptance.

Accept the past. It’s over.

We’ll find serenity as soon as we learn to accept the things we can’t change.

When we maintain faith, charity, and hope as our primary focus and mindset, we let go of control, and anxiety loses its grip.

In closing, when I teach tennis, Pickleball, golf, painting, writing, or anything else, I suggest, “Losen your grip.”

Losen your grip, and anxiety will slip away.

Thanks for reading my article, published originally on Medium, where writers get paid. When not coaching and advising emerging entrepreneurs, business owners, and investors, I help people improve their "mental wealth" and quality of life by writing, speaking, coaching, and advocating for mental wealth and well-being. Learn more at www.CliffordJones.com, or subscribe to The Clarity Letter on Substack.