Anxiety always lies, always. The undeniably best life coach in the world, Dr. Martha Beck, has addressed anxiety in her latest appearance on the Mel Robbins podcast. A topic most painstaking in Lebanon and everywhere else in the world, it is conducive to our wellbeing to get educated on the subject. Don’t you ever feel paralyzed by your anxiety and overthinking, unable to see the light at the end of the tunnel?

Dr. Martha has got us covered with her valuable input. She advises to turn to creativity when we feel ourselves going into that anxiety spiral: Fear, Control, then back to Fear. The right hemisphere of the brain is in charge of art and creativity. Shake it up and shift your mindset from the logical left to the right, by writing things down or doing something with your hands such as pottery. As she so wisely put it, anxiety shuts down creativity and creativity shuts down anxiety. The single most effective thing we can do to turn things around in our life is to create something. Instead of saying: Oh God, what do I do now? Ask: What can I make now? 

With this tool, and as soon as we start using our hands, our brain changes, then our life changes. For the human imagination knows no bounds and is oh so powerful. Which explains this fact of life: where our attention goes, our life goes.

She goes on to share the anxious thought most people struggle with. “I’m not good” and “I’m not good enough”. This is The biggest lie ever told by our devious mind. The feeling of unworthiness is the single most dangerous and painful disease we suffer from. We are so precious by nature; it is not something we have to struggle our whole lives to earn. The spiritual teacher Byron Katie has got the right idea: “If you understood how important you are, you would shatter into a billion pieces and just be light”.

Ultimately, if you feel overwhelmed by fear and anxiety, follow the three-step guide recommended by Martha Beck: KAT. A is for Art, T is for Transformation and Transcendence. The game changer however is Kindness, a topic where she expands with the acronym KIST: Kind Internal Self Talk. Be your own best friend, the love of your life. Show yourself compassion and say things like: I’m here for you, I got you. Go get a blanket, make yourself some tea and be gentle on yourself when you’re knee-deep in turmoil. These precious tactics will get you out of the darkest holes and into the best chapter of your life.