The Tiger That Isn't There

Anxiety is walking into a dark room and seeing a tiger. It's not there. It cannot be there, but that is the effect an anxious person experiences. They feel everything is falling apart. They want to stop that, which feels like the right thing to do. But everything is not falling apart. It only appears so to them. They want to control how every action of theirs, as well as others', turns out. They want to influence the outcome. They plan it in their mind and then attempt to control it by managing every variable involved. Soon their systems are overwhelmed and they have no framework for dealing with this force. Everything feels daunting. The clue lies in the compulsion to control the outcome. If you are constantly stressed, inspect whether you are trying to dictate how everything turns out in the end. You can control only a limited number of things in life. Everything else depends on how everyone else does their part. When you try to control the outcome, you are effectively trying to…