"Will I Be, OK?", Yes, You Will Be. Here is Why.

TL;DR?

Yes. You will be okay.

No matter where you are right now, you will be ok. The journey will have its ups and downs, but you will make it. Things will get better, in one way or other. It may not seem like that for a while, hang in there anyway. Things will look up again. And you will be okay.

And you are not alone. Over 40 million people in the United States experience anxiety each year. If you are not feeling OK, you are not alone. Billions of people around the world have experienced what you are going through right now. And just like them, you will be OK.

But before you read further, we want you to take a moment and take 5 deep breaths.

Put your hand over your heart, close your eyes and repeat -- “I am going to be okay.” Repeat as many times as you need. Stop when you are feeling a little better and the affirmation has sunk in.

If the above exercise did not work, here is an uplifting/affirmative song as you read the article:

We are living in extremely uncertain times. All areas of our life – finances, health, career, relationships, etc. are up in the air. It is hard to make plans (or even feel a sense of normalcy) when new infectious virus variants are rampant, and no one (around the world) really knows the answers. Since the pandemic, for one reason or another, all of us have wondered if we will be OK.

Living in a constant state of worry when you are holding your life together at the seams can be incredibly exhausting. This is especially true when you feel that everything will be ruined if you let go or forget a single step.

When we live like this, our body is perpetually in a state of survival, our cortisol levels are high, and we are using all our resources to fight the circumstances we are in. Functions such as repair, growth, and restoration are shut down and we are in a state of fight or flight all the time. We develop chronic conditions out of nowhere and that adds another financial and emotional burden to our already overwhelming life.

While we are proponents of looking at the glass half full, we also believe in accepting what we are experiencing. It’s OK not to be OK. We can be not OK but also have faith in ourselves to find a way out of the situation we are in.

Just accepting that we are going through a tough time can be helpful, often freeing. Even if nothing in your life changes, acceptance can release some energy and make space for healing to move into your life.

Here are a few more reasons why you will be OK:

You are acknowledging that something does not feel right.

When things don’t go our way, we often bottle up our feelings or try to sweep them under the rug. While this may work temporarily, things often explode in a big way when you are triggered. But by feeling and experiencing anxiety right now, you are facing them head-on.

You are here.

The very fact that you are here and reading this article means you will be OK. It means that either you actively looked for help or someone who cares for you sent it to you. It means that you are willing to make the effort and go the extra mile to be okay. Don’t take the small wonders and gestures for granted. Good things are aligning for you already. You got this.

You are taking one step at a time.

Sometimes tiny baby steps. But you are making your way. Slowly but surely. It may not seem like you are making much progress, but you are heading in the right direction. Just keep at it.

You are outside your comfort zone.

Yet you are trying your best to overcome it. Being outside our comfort zone can help elevate your learning and grow in every area of your life.

You are looking at setbacks as learnings.

As hard as things are right now, just asking yourself, “what did I learn from this experience?” helps in changing our perspective. When we look at the things that are causing us anxiety, we learn from them. Even if those challenges do not inspire us, they give us experience. There is no guarantee that you can avoid situations of anxiety in the future, but the experience teaches us how to manage them better.

Difficult experiences also make us more empathetic and relatable. When you go through a difficult experience, you can understand and relate to others better. This significantly helps others when they are going through a tough time.

You are taking your time.

When we rush through an experience because it's uncomfortable, we often miss the opportunity for growth. All problems come to our lives as a message. If we just take a mindful moment in the chaos of our anxiety, we often see that opportunity. This does not come naturally to any of us, and it is hard to find meaning in anything when we are just trying to survive.

All we can do is take our time. Try to just be in the moment so we can heal and rejuvenate.

You are changing your vibe.

Just changing our daily negative thought patterns to positive ones can benefit us immensely. While this small but significant change may not show results immediately, its effects will compound over time and reduce the thoughts of anxiety. If you don’t know where to start and are not sure how to break those negative thought patterns, read our article below.

You are paying attention to self-talk.

The way we talk to ourselves dictates our experience of life, for the most part. This is not only hard to accept for most of us, but it is also hard to change. It is also difficult (and tiresome) to monitor your thoughts all day long. There is no device that can do it for you. As a result, it becomes difficult for all of us to change from within, completely.

This is also the reason many of us regress in our habits. Initial habitual changes are motivated by external factors. For instance, if you have a personal trainer, you will work out regularly. But if you do not change the internal dialog about working out, you will fall back into the old habits and quit working out the moment you don’t have a personal trainer (external stimuli).

In our article below, we offer a few suggestions on how to change your internal dialog to a more positive one.

So next time you feel anxious about the future (or even the past or the present), remember you are on a journey. The purpose and meaning of life’s experiences are often revealed to us in hindsight. All you need to know is that you are not alone in this. And all you can do is stay positive and keep going. Everything else will fall in place over time. And you will be okay.