Anxiety for today

What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Current Headlines: "North Korea Launches Rocket", "Recession outlasts even extended jobless benefits", "Financial sector bailout will cost taxpayers more", etc.

It is a new week, with new challenges, new fears, but the week also holds unlimited potential.

As we go through each day we sometimes ignore the good that comes our way.

No matter how bad things are going today, we are socially, economically, and physically better off in the US than the majority of the world. Normally, we don't have to struggle to find enough food or clean water to survive another day.

With that said, I would be a fool to think just because we know we are better off than others, that comparison alone is enough to take care of the things that individually pain us. It doesn't. And most of us carry burdens that are not, and maybe can not be, shared with anyone else.

What lies within us? Is it sadness, is it joy, is it despair or hope?

Anxiety is one of those hidden burdens that may lay within us.

Typing anxiety into 'Google' returns over 58,000,000 hits. WebMD has numerous articles on anxiety and is one place to start if you think you want to know more about this issue.

Do we need to express what lies within us?

In the last few years I have been told (at different times) that I wear rose colored glasses, that I see the glass half-empty, and that I rain on the parade. From those comments I believe that I must be rather expressive of what lies within me.

Sorry world, I can't keep my opinions to myself.

In my humble opinion, it has helped me to keep a positive outlook when I am able to express what is running through my mind. It has happened more than once that another's viewpoint has shown me that my approach to an issue may not be the only or best solution. Sometimes it just feels good to bring your fears out into the open.

Reach out to someone, get a different perspective on an issue, pray, support each other, or even start a website. (Although without a comment section or anyone visiting your site, feedback is a little difficult, blogs work better in that case).

After you have aired the problems of the day, try hard to focus on the good, be kind to others, borrow some rose colored glasses, and laugh out loud.

And if you think you need professional help to cope with anxiety, please seek it.