Butterflies In Your Stomach

Hi all,
This is the piece we used to close last night's group on Anxiety:

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The purpose of life is not to get rid of the butterflies in your stomach, but to make them fly in formation.
--Author unknown

Did you know that your anxiety could help you at work? Anxieties are a signal; they are a warning system within us saying "Halt!" "Look!" "Listen!" Our anxieties are either honest fears or old, familiar feelings we have carried irrationally from our past. If our anxieties come from legitimate fears, we can face them honestly and move beyond them.

I like to think of anxiety as lying at the threshold of change. Often we feel anxiety when we are entering a new position, a new workplace, or a new experience. These anxieties are natural; they are telling us that we care about our performance. However, when we carry anxieties from our past, such as those that come from old stories of self-doubt, we face a challenge of another kind. We must trace the history of these anxieties and find the primary sources. These anxieties often hover about, leading us to a dead end. We can move through these anxieties by respecting and working on them instead of burying them. Otherwise, they will continue to haunt us.

Just for today, I will listen to my anxious feelings and ask myself whether they are legitimate anxieties from the present or hovering haunts that have been hiding in my closet.

source: www.hazelden.org

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