What do you think anxiety is? You recognize it when you have it. You are very familiar with it, but what is it? It is a gnawing disturbance that your mind has set in motion. Even when you don’t know what your anxiety alludes to, your mind has decided to bring it on. It would stir the pot of anxiety.

No matter how vague, there is the idea that something is not as it should be. Where would that idea come from if not from the mind? The mind has decided what something should look like, as if it could know. It has decided that something is amiss. What is amiss is the mind, making comparisons. It incurs anxiety, attributing it to the concept that the present doesn’t meet the mind’s standard, a standard imposed arbitrarily, of course, and needlessly. The mind imposes upon you the idea that you have made some kind of mistake, even when it doesn’t know what it is. The mind tells you: “You may have made an error. You must have made an error and not caught it yet. But it will catch you. You have missed something.”

The mind would tell you that there is a plot somewhere, and you are the goal of it. The mind would tell you that your friends are giving a party, perhaps, and you have not been invited. You have overlooked something, and you have been overlooked.

Anxiety is a nag.

I will tell you that there is no cause for anxiety. Whatever you have omitted, whatever mistake you have made, whatever disturbance of the mind, forgive it, and anxiety will leave you alone. No longer ruminate what inner or outer conflicts you may have. You pay too high a price for nothing at all.

Substitute confidence for anxiety. Have confidence that I am God, and that I am with you. Have confidence that you are loved. Have confidence that whatever has transpired, it transpired. It does not have to continue. It is over. Perhaps yesterday you had a torn overcoat. That was yesterday. Do not carry the tears with you today.

Yesterday is long ago.

Look to today. Champion yourself. If you are a prizefighter, the match you had yesterday is over. There is a new one coming up. You are in training. You cannot expect that you will win every match. You can expect to get in the ring. A bell will ring. You will get up.

Consider yourself a weaver in life. You are the weaver, and you are the threads that move in and out. You cannot weave in a straight line. Weaving must be in and out and around. Life is not meant to be all one way. Life has its dips and its crests.

Do not feel anxiety because waves go up and down. Do not worry with each dip that it won’t rise again. Do not have anxiety because a wave doesn’t stay crested. This is the nature of waves, and this is the nature of Human life.

You are a surfer in life, beloveds. See yourself riding high. At the same time, know that you go along with the waves. You do not have to hold yourself to a perfect image. When you fall, it is only to rise again.

Anxiety is an ungenerous act to yourself. Anxiety is without honor. It is a scavenger. It would scavenge your sense of well-being. Measly anxiety would rub you raw. You do not have to allow it. It is like a rash. Do not scratch it, and it will fade away. Anxiety doesn’t belong to you. You don’t have to have it. Dispense with it. Be done with it. Smile instead.