We are going through something together. A kind of collective trauma. Or shock. Or grief. We will react with a multitude of emotions. Sadness. Despair. Fury. Reflection. Kindness. Hope. Fear. None of these reactions will be wrong. We are changing but don’t yet know how.

The riskiest emotion, in my experience, is fear. Of course we should allow it and acknowledge it, and it has its uses. But too much fear can shrink us. It can literally hunch us over and turn us inward. In being so determined to protect is it can actually lose us.

I was diagnosed with panic disorder at 25. Had it for three years. Then generalised anxiety. And in my long experience of various treatments and approaches the thing that helped was finding a shift in perspective from inward to outward thinking. The inverse of fear is curiosity.

By curiosity I don’t mean stroking your chin and going ‘mmm, how curious’. I mean anything that engages us OUTSIDE OF OURSELVES. A curiosity about other people. About Game of Thrones. About Tolstoy. Or pre-Raphaelite art. Or nature. Or table tennis. Anything that engages you.

Yes. Curiosity keeps me sane. I think it's the enemy of anxiety. Even when the anxiety feels like everything if I get into something deep enough it can pull me out. Try and find a passion as large as your fear. The way out of your mind is via the world.

This is just some of my own personal thoughts on the matter. Hope you have an okay day.

*these are

(Believe it or not I am actually a writer.)