Seven of the Best Sayings for Dealing With Anxiety

The power of language is enormous. Who hasn't felt better after listening to the lyrics of a certain song or reading a calming quote? In this article, we're going to share some phrases that can make you feel better when you find yourself threatened by anxiety.

Written and verified by the psychologist Elena Sanz.

Last update: 09 March, 2023

Anxiety is one of the most significant mental health problems worldwide and has important economic and personal costs every year. If you’re aware of its symptoms, you’ll know how distressing they can be and to what extent they can paralyze you.

At those times when you find yourself feeling anxious, it’s important to have certain resources to help you move forward. For this reason, we’re going to share some phrases with you for dealing with anxiety that can be useful in times of crisis.

It’s estimated that more than 33 percent of the population suffers from a disorder of this nature throughout their lives. However, an even higher percentage of people experience symptoms without being diagnosed. Indeed, anxiety is a serious condition, which requires professional intervention. For this to be successful, the circumstances of each personal sufferer need to be taken into account. The following phrases should prove to be complementary and helpful resources if you’re dealing with anxiety.

Helpful sayings for dealing with anxiety

Our list isn’t a mere compilation of motivating phrases, but rather a resource that you can use whenever you need it. That’s because the simple act of repeating certain affirmations can have beneficial effects. In fact, several investigations have found that mantra-based meditation is effective in improving mental health.

It isn’t even necessary for these practices to contain traditional spiritual or transcendental components. Actually, a mantra isn’t always the well-known om chant, but it can be any phrase, expression, or idea that’s repeated constantly and monotonously.

Some studies have found that this practice has effects on the brain, generating a general deactivation of the cerebral cortex. By employing repetition, you’re able to cancel your mental speech and redirect the negative and intrusive thoughts that are so distressing and typical of anxiety.

In addition, the following phrases can help you modify your beliefs. Bear in mind that anxiety starts from and feeds on a series of dysfunctional and poorly adjusted thoughts that you don’t know how to control and that you take to be true. Thus, by creating new ways of thinking and adopting different interpretations of reality, you’ll feel better.

Phrases for dealing with anxiety

If you want to give this resource a try for calming your mind and modifying your internal dialogue, here are seven affirmations to use and reflect on.

Don’t believe everything your mind tells you

You tend to assume that your mind is the rational and logical part of you that helps you to anticipate and plan and solve problems. Therefore, you tend to blindly trust it. However, it’s important to remember that your brain is far from foolproof. On the contrary, your thought processes are full of biases and distortions that lead you to perceive and interpret situations in a specific and not necessarily real way.

For example, if you suffer from social anxiety, you might be convinced that you’re inadequate and socially inept and assume that others will think the worst of you. However, this is just conjecture. In fact, in reality, you’d probably be amazed at how others often hold you in high regard and esteem.

90 percent of the things you worry about never happen

Anxiety is mainly based on anticipating a future that hasn’t yet arrived and may never arrive. You become disturbed and distressed by hypothetical events in an attempt to control them before they occur. But, you’ll be reassured to know that those events you fear so much will most likely not take place.

Worrying is like praying for something you don’t want

You don’t need to be religious or particularly spiritual to understand this expression. Think about how you feel when you imagine something you really want and ask life to grant to you. What happens then? You focus all your attention on that event, amplifying it and giving it a sense of reality. You can almost feel the upholstery of that car you want to buy or the quiet satisfaction of having a good partner by your side.

Worrying involves carrying out the same process, but about what you don’t want to happen. You dedicate all your attention, time, and mental energy to an upsetting situation. For your body, it’s as if it’s already happening. Why torture yourself by repeatedly experiencing the sensations of what terrifies you the most?

You’re not your thoughts

Practices like mindfulness invite you to detach yourself from your beliefs. Taking this step will make it easier to later analyze your thoughts from the position of an observer, not a participant.

Thousands of ideas pass through your mind every day, some true and some false, some related to your values and some not. They’re like songs being broadcast by a radio station. Only you’re the only listener. However, you don’t have to agree with those ‘songs’ you don’t like. Just let them go without judging them.

“If you aren’t willing to have it, you will”.

This quote by Steven Hayes captures the idea of not avoiding the experience of anxiety. It suggests that it’s often the fear of experiencing anxiety that, paradoxically, increases your anguish.

Being able to feel anxiety, tolerate it, and not try to reject or avoid it at all costs can be the path to improvement or recovery. In fact, it’s a basic requirement in exposure techniques.

“Worry is carrying tomorrow’s load with today’s strength”.

Writer and activist Corrie Ten Boom uttered these insightful words that are useful to remember in bad times. Anxiety is often perpetuated based on the positive vision you have of worry. You believe that worrying makes you a good, responsible, and considerate person. Moreover, you think that it allows you to prevent something bad from happening in the future.

However, in reality, worrying only takes away your strength and energy. In addition, it causes you discomfort and certainly doesn’t help you find any solutions. So, instead of worrying, get busy.

“Slow breathing is like an anchor in the midst of an emotional storm: the anchor won’t make the storm go away, but it will hold you steady until it passes”.

The last of our phrases for dealing with anxiety comes from Russ Harris. It reminds us of the importance of breathing as a key exercise in anxiety management. Breathing slowly, deeply, and consciously helps you reduce your physiological and mental activation. Consequently, it’s a really useful tool for managing anxiety crises, as well as for establishing a lower basal level.

We hope that these phrases have helped you reflect and bring you a good dose of calm. Choose the ones that you like the most or that you connect with and use them as mantras. Make sure you read them several times so you understand the paradigm shift they propose. Your way of thinking is more important than you might think.