A couple of weeks ago in my personal Facebook memories, a post appeared where I announced that I got my driver’s license. While I have written to some degree on that, I do at the time while I was able to get my driver’s license, I was not totally 100% my best self. Time got behind me and eventually, I wouldn’t hear any part of even thinking about doing anything related to driving in the future.

Really in recent weeks, I realized that I had been down and out a lot because I would not allow myself to believe that there was a future or that things were going to get better for me. While I do have a lot and have done a lot of things in my time, there are some circumstances in my life that could possibly change in the future and make things more difficult if I allowed myself to believe that I had to stay in the same old rut with no potential to learn and grow more.

Anxiety plays a big role in how I approach new things or doing things that are uncomfortable to me. Doing something that is different or familiar makes me extremely anxious to the point that I want to avoid it altogether because I fear that something is going to go wrong with it, and I cannot rebound. It has been what has kept me from moving out on my own not once, but twice. I had a hard time believing things were possible for me even though others knew that they were possible and could even be better for me.

There are parts of my life that I feel comfortable but there are also parts that I feel stuck in, and they bring negativity in my headspace. Not being able to see beyond my anxiety kept me stuck in what is comfortable for me and not allowing me to see that there could be room for growth and potential in my life. It has been hindering me from seeing that doing the things that I am able to do can allow me to have more possibilities to be more independent and improve my mental health.

It is not saying that my anxiety is cured, it is learning to work with it and not against it by letting it trap me into things I feel comfortable with. Everything comes in small steps and that is what I need to do to get to where I am. There is no race to get things, just determination and working past my fears and learning to cope with my anxiety .

Sometimes, you have failure, and I know that can happen, but you will never know unless you try. Sometimes you live and learn from past experiences, but eventually things come together and like I realized, I have been letting my anxiety hold myself back from doing things that have made me feel uncomfortable or unfamiliar to me.

As I have learned with all the changes over the past few years that change, and new things can be good, but being able to see past the feelings of being trapped and that there is a desire or potential to learn and grow beyond what makes me feel comfortable is crucial.