24/11/2020
I’ll let you in on a secret: I know a whole lot about being scared. After all, I was diagnosed with social anxiety at 15, and generalized anxiety at 25.
What CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) taught me early on, is that you have to face your fears. Be scared, and do it anyway. You don’t have to start by the scariest thing, and you certainly don’t have to do it all at once, but you have to try.
Two years into my first corporate job, I felt like I couldn’t make sense of anything anymore. I was lost. I felt like I failed because I didn’t succeed in creating that 9-5, boyfriend, house and a car life for myself. And then I realized: all of this didn’t matter, as long as I didn’t settle for easy. So I did one of the scariest thing I ever did and bought a one-way ticket to Australia. I arrived in Melbourne alone, with no place to live and no job lined up. I’ll be honest, there were tears.
But here’s what I did next:
➡️ I worked in Retail and Hospitality, speaking a language that’s not mine and adapting to another culture (let me tell you, social anxiety and Australian culture do NOT match 😅).
➡️ Said yes to every opportunity I was given to make new friends, even if I was terrified.
➡️ Enrolled in a Yoga teacher training, and actually taught.
➡️ Launched my own design business and put myself out there.
I guess all I’m saying is, I know first hand how overwhelming things can get, how scary it all can be, and how depressing it can feel when we think we’ve failed. Thing is, you don’t have to have it all figured out yet. You really don’t. As long as you’re taking risks, you’re doing just fine.