Essay About Fighting the Demon

Do you have those days where the anxiety within you consumes every ounce of you? Where you’re so exhausted you can’t function? When you have a day like this, how do you function enough to go on with it? Sometimes all I want to do is crawl back in bed and curl up under the covers.

Anxiety is the demon that if you don’t have it, it can be hard to understand. It lurks inside you and tries every method possible to mess with you. It ruins your plans, it screams at you, and certainly will destroy anything you let it. For me, I find anxiety to be one of the most debilitating things.

As I sit here and write today, I look at the leaves as they blow in the wind and find a sense of peace. That’s the trick, with anxiety, you must distract the mind, and bring it back to the here and the now. You cannot let it wander. It’s almost as if keeping it on a very tight leash.

“How would your life be different if…You stopped worrying about things you can’t control and started focusing on the things you can? Let today be the day…You free yourself from fruitless worry, seize the day and take effective action on things you can change.”— Steve Maraboli

So how else do I bring myself back to the here and the now? By focusing on little activities or doing something that I love to do. You see, worrying about the future does nothing but take away the moment of now from you. No, you cannot control what the future may hold. But you can control how you spend the present moment and do you want to spend it worrying about things you cannot control? I think not!

That is what anxiety has taught me. It will destroy your life, it will take the moment of now away from you forever. You can’t take now back after it is gone, and that is what anxieties main focus is. Do you want to live your whole life worrying about what may or may not happen tomorrow, or do you want to live for the day that God gave you today?

Dealing with anxiety is going to be different for everyone. I have discussed before that I find great relief in meditating and doing yoga daily. Getting in touch with nature and going for walks also help me. Recently I found a new way of controlling my anxiety that I would like to share with you.

I recently rediscovered my passion for crafting. It is so relaxing and refreshing, bringing out the craftiness within! There are so many things to create, and you can have so much fun while doing it! The possibilities are endless. The things that I love doing the most are crocheting, knitting, stamping, paper crafting, jewelry making, and recently working with chalk paint. As I said, there is so much creating that can be done! Find a niche and run with it!

Book Page Wreath

One project I recently created was a paper wreath out of book pages. I had so much fun with this project. It was time-consuming, but that is why I loved it. It kept my mind from wandering, and I was able to create a beautiful centerpiece for my living room.

Book Page Flowers

After I had completed the book page wreath, I wanted something to match it for the coffee table, so I found flowers that I was able to make to match! This project took me all day to complete, but it was a blast to do! It achieved the goal of keeping my mind from wandering, which kept my anxiety at bay. Now I have flowers to match my wreath, win, win for me!

Crocheted Earrings

Onto jewelry! I also recently found that I can mix crocheting and jewelry making! Excuse me, what?! I had no idea these two things could be combined. I created a beautiful pair of crocheted hoops. Crocheted jewelry is something that I most certainly will be doing more of going forward.

It’s little daily projects like these that bring me peace throughout my anxious times. It’s one of the only ways I can quiet the mind. I am lucky to have such a strong and loving support system, however, it is only me who can quiet the demon inside. After all I am the one living with it.

So I encourage you, too, to find things that makes you feel accomplished. Things that inspire you! This is how you shall quiet your demon. If you don’t feed it, it won’t grow.