15 Relaxing Quotes to Help You Deal With Your Anxiety
For when you realize the purpose of a stress ball is not to throw it at people who stress you out.
People of all ages, genders, and nationalities experience stress, and it seems like every year the world moves at a faster pace. Today, anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness across the country, with 40 million adults affected every year, according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America.
Living with anxiety is hardly easy, when any day can include irrational fear of nonthreatening situations, excessive nervousness and indecisiveness, and even the inability to relax at any given time, as the Mayo Clinic defines the condition. In a world where your next anxiety attack may be just around the corner, and you feel like everything is plummeting downhill fast, take a deep breath and read through these stress-relieving, empowering quotes.
“Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
“Do what you can, with what you've got, where you are.” — Theodore Roosevelt
“There is no trouble so great or grave that cannot be much diminished by a nice cup of tea.” — attributed to Bernard-Paul Heroux
“My anxiety doesn't come from thinking about the future but from wanting to control it.” — Hugh Prather, Notes to Myself
“Sorrow looks back, worry looks around, faith looks up.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
"You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step." — Martin Luther King
“It’s not time to worry yet.” — Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
"We must have a pie. Stress cannot exist in the presence of a pie." — David Mamet, "Boston Marriage"
“I just give myself permission to suck. I find this hugely liberating.” — John Green, author of The Fault in Our Stars
"No need to hurry. No need to sparkle. No need to be anybody but oneself." — Virginia Woolf
“Stress is an ignorant state. It believes everything is an emergency.” — Natalie Goldberg
“I cannot always control what goes on outside. But I can always control what goes on inside.” — Wayne Dyer
“Worry is my worst enemy... an enemy I unleash upon myself.” — Terri Guillemets
“Calmness is the cradle of power.” — Josiah Gilbert Holland
“The great thing, then, in all education, is to make our nervous system our ally instead of our enemy.” — William James