In the book, You, Me, and Anxiety, I am sharing my lifelong journey with anxiety so that I can help young women and their families navigate life with anxiety and discover hope. Life with anxiety can be better

Life with anxiety is going to get easier to navigate. Why? Because You, Me, and Anxiety is available to help teens and their parents navigate anxiety. In the book, I share my life-long journey with anxiety and offer the tools and tips that I wish I'd known earlier in my life.

I get real, and raw, and tell the not-so-pretty experiences of my life with anxiety while helping you understand anxiety, recognize triggers for anxiety, and the steps you can take to navigate your life with anxiety.

Today is a new day in my life with anxiety

On March 3rd, 2021 I signed a contract with Highlander Press. I knew I was being called to write a book and share my life-long journey with anxiety, but I had been dragging my feet. I wasn't sure where to begin, other than to write, and I was afraid.

By chance, I met Debby Kevin, owner of Highlander Press, a hybrid publishing company. She thought we were having a coffee chat to get to know each other. I was having a coffee chat to seek information about her publishing company.

When I told Debby about my book idea, she loved it, as she too has had family experience with anxiety and immediately recognized the value my book could provide.

Soon after our conversation, I signed the contract, and intentional work began.

Anxiety doesn't just go away

The fact is, that even though I've learned tools to recognize triggers and navigate my anxiety, it has never gone away. It is part of my DNA. I could succumb to it and just use it as an excuse, but I refuse to do that and I don't want young women of today to either.

No one with clinical anxiety can just get over it. Living with anxiety is tricky. The mind is incredibly complex. And when you add the complexity of the brain, genetics, and environmental factors all together, it is simply impossible to completely overcome and have zero symptoms of anxiety. Our society is so fast-paced and we are so inundated with temptations of comparison, and to be better, work harder, and do more that there is no way to completely ignore or just get over anxiety. Not to mention the ever-changing state of our world.

But what we can do, is identify triggers and retrain our brains to handle anxiety in a positive way instead of letting anxiety control us.

 

Action over anxiety is imperative to find joy

The key to being able to experience hope, joy, and purpose as you live with anxiety, is to take action. In You, Me, and Anxiety I map out my 5 Cs Journaling Method. There are activities for you to do to recognize triggers, identify your fears, overcome shame, identify who you trust, tips on communication and relationships, the importance of forgiveness, why it is important to be curious instead of judgmental, how to give yourself grace, and how to use faith as a means of navigating anxiety.

My story, my gift

You, Me, and Anxiety is more than just my story. It is my gift to the world to hopefully create a ripple effect, a movement, for taking action over anxiety, to decrease the incidence of addiction, decrease the ever-increasing prevalence of deaths by suicide, help families build stronger relationships, and live more joyful, purposeful lives.

You, Me, and Anxiety is now available on Amazon. When I originally sat down to write, I thought I was writing a book for teen girls. But I quickly realized that in order to truly make an impact I also needed to provide information and a tool for parents whose teens have anxiety. And of course, since journaling has been my main tool for navigating anxiety, I created a journal so that readers can take immediate action while reading the book.

And, to try to inspire more people to take action over anxiety, I created merchandise with the action over anxiety logo. We have t-shirts, hoodies, bookmarks, stickers, and coffee mugs to start with.

I'd love for you to head over to Amazon and buy the book and then leave a review. That will, of course, help with creating the ripple effect of more people taking action over anxiety to put more joy in the world.

Read the full show notes and access links to the book and more. 

And don't forget, you can also download the free eBook on alleviating anxiety by developing healthy habits for a healthy mind.