A Letter to my anxiety

" Have you ever felt trapped inside your own body? Suffocating as if there is no way out,so anxious and clueless about your own feelings. If yes, you are not alone. There was a time,I could hear my own heartbeat aloud in noisy crowd. I was aware about my anxiousness but expressing to someone was not easy. 
 Finally assembled all my courage to write a letter to one of my mentor with a hope. Hope that he will understand my undefinable agitation. This 'A letter to my anxiety' encrypted below is his reply to me.

The major intent behind sharing this letter, is to convey that Anxiety is not a myth but real, it can happen to anyone and if you are one of the sufferer you are not alone.

Dear Roji, 

One of the most important thing in life is to consider what gives your life a fulfilling sense of meaning.  While it may sounds basic it is actually a hard thing to do. For this one has to realize that one has both potential and limits. But I think one should consider that one inherently has more limits than potential which allows the person to be humble, calm and compassionate. I was once a very proud person once and it only made me angry, resentful and envious of other people. But these negative feelings are fodder to anxiety and anxiety just constantly feeds on them. So, I decided (actually realized) one day that I have more limits than potential. And then I began practicing (yes its practicing because these things we humans have to train ourselves to do it) compassion, love and non-judgmental attitude. Slowly, the world began unraveling itself to me in the most beautiful of ways that I cannot describe in words here. Anyways, the message here is that kill anger and resentment. Tell yourself that you are normal and you've got to work hard in life. Imagine if Einstein hadn't worked hard all his life. So lofty words like 'talent' and 'intelligence' means shit unless you work hard.  

Also, the thing with anxiety, I have realized is that it  is equally psychological and biological in nature. When I was going through anxiety issues back in the days, I always felt low both physically and mentally. So my anxiety hacks were drinking enough water, doing some exercise, eating healthy, running, consuming less alcohol, not over eating and so forth. It worked on me. Just trust me when I say avoid oily food. 

Also, you have to figure out what type of anxiety you are dealing with. It will help you immensely. For me, it was more existential in nature. I would get all worked up and depressed about questions like 'what is the meaning of life?' and 'what is the purpose of life?', these questions which I still struggle to answer. So if you find out what sort of anxiety you are dealing with, you will know the causes of it too. 

I can go on and on about anxiety issues because I went though it in a horrible way Roji but its a personal experience and since people go through it in different ways, it is upto the person who goes through it to figure its mechanisms not to solve the issue of anxiety but to accept the issue of anxiety and use it in a positive way. When I say 'positive' way I don't strictly use this word because 'negative way' can be equally useful. 

Anyways, let me sum it up base on my experience (in random order) 

1. I am not special (but also keep in mind, no one is - not even your role model) 

2. Eat good food

3. Stay hydrated

4. Practice kindness

5. Find a meaning to your daily life (You've gotta figure that one out yourself)

6. Work hard 

Kind regards, 

photo credit : Sushant Maharjan (Repeace)