In short, stop struggling to feel and think better, and instead start living better with whatever you might be feeling or thinking.

One thing we’ve noticed again and again in working with people struggling with anxiety and fear-related problems is this: they constantly beat up on themselves. They feel that they’re not good enough; they’re too weak; they just haven’t got what it takes to lead a more fulfilled life. They’re somehow broken. No book lists this type of self-denigrat

Thoughts and feelings of panic and anxiety are unpleasant, intense, overwhelming at times, and even terrifying. But they aren’t the real enemy. The real enemy is rigid avoidance of fear and anxiety.

His greatest fear was of the panic itself.

Accept with serenity what you cannot change, have the courage to change what you can, and develop the wisdom to know the difference.

The most critical element that separates normal from problematic anxiety and fear is this: avoidance, avoidance, and more avoidance. It’s the common tie that binds all anxiety disorders together. Avoidance of fear and anxiety feeds anxiety and fear, and it shrinks lives.

Maybe, just maybe, your thoughts and feelings are not barriers at all. Maybe they’re just part of you. Perhaps you can bring them along with you as you do what you care about.

People know anxiety by having anxious apprehension or a sense of foreboding, worry, and muscle tension.

This meant starting to do things he had stopped doing because of anxiety and instead being willing to be anxious while doing them.