Two Steps Forward & One Step Back

Yesterday I awoke feeling amazing, refreshed and ready to face another work week. I drove into work with a renewed sense of confidence, having faced my fears and survived. The new me said, lets grab a friend from work and go get some lunch, so thats what I did. The anxiety began to creep in on the drive, whats going on, I beat this thing. As we walked into the restaurant my anxiety quickly shot to a 5, this sucks, I don’t want to do this anymore. Then as we waited for our food to arrive, my anxiety peaked at around a 7. I don’t understand, the past two days I did so great. I mean, I went into Lowes, on the busiest day of the week and my anxiety was a zero, why now?

The important thing to understand is that recovery, as with most things in life, is not linear. There are peaks and valleys but as long as you are staying present, it doesn’t really matter if you are currently on a peak or down in a valley. From the peaks, you can view how far you have climbed out of the darkness that is anxiety. In the valleys, you have the wonderful opportunity to learn and grow. There is no good. There is no bad. It just is.