A

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

END ANXIETY

nxiety is what happens when your habit of worrying spirals out of control.
As a lifelong anxiety sufferer, I know all too well the grip it can hold on you
and how scary it can feel. I also know how to beat it. Using the #5SecondRule in
combination with a strategy called “reframing” is the answer.

The key to beating anxiety is understanding it. If you can catch it right as it
kicks in and reframe it, you’ll stabilize your thoughts before your mind escalates it
into full blown panic. And over time, as you use the #5SecondRule over and over,
your anxiety will weaken and become what it started—out as simple worries. As you
just learned, the habit of worry is easy to break.

I think I was born anxious. As a child, my parents said I had a “nervous
stomach” and I worried about everything. I was that kid at camp who was so
homesick she had to go home early. As a college student, my face would turn as red
as a tomato when I got called on. I relied on liquid courage to talk to hot guys at
parties because without alcohol I’d get stress hives on my neck.