Gratitude can't hurt

I've been having an especially hard time with anxiety over the last number of months. With the impending glorious entry into my Forties (6 weeks from now? Already?) I'm determined not let that demon creep into what I consider to be power years and hang around like a bad smell (I'm not talking about normal fears and worries that all of us deal with. I'm talking about debilitating anxiety that interferes with work, school, relationships and health).

(Fear is the mind-killer...)

The things that scare me the most (illness, loss, kids coming to harm, planet implosion, the evil that humans do, etc.) simply will not be staved off with a glib statement of "oh, that probably won't happen me/someone I love". Maybe it will, or maybe it won't. Maybe whether or not it happens is besides the point.

Either way, there's something really counterproductive about thinking obsessively on the Maybe. Daily. Repetitively. Intrusively.

The only worthwhile answer I can think of is to find gratitude in what good I experience daily.

Now.

I think I'll start with, as an act of the will, being grateful for how my anxiety forces me to grow and to seek out answers.

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