When things are good do you believe something bad is going to follow?

If you’re traveling today I have the perfect 20 minute episode to keep ya occupied. Today on the LOTP podcast we get into mental health. Specifically regarding anxiety. I share a short story that recently happened to me that almost left me in a panic attack in the cheese section of Trader Joe’s (no joke). But, instead of completely crumbing. I combatted my anxiety and kept on shopping.

I’ll keep it a short caption and just tell you this…I was having the most wonderful day and whammy an incident occurred which instantly knocked the wind out of me and all my old tendencies and behaviors started to crawl (it felt more like a whoosh tbh) to the surface.

I use to believe that when good things happened a bad thing would follow. But the truth is, these two things are running side by side. Life is always happening around us.

Did you know that it’s actually not unusual to feel anxious following good news or when life is good. Psychologists like myself call this happiness anxiety. A lot of the time our emotions get mixed together.

Think of the movie Inside Out…you know at the end when the girl is feeling both happy and sad and the glass ball has mixed colors of blue and yellow?  These emotions can get tied together based on the situation presented to us.

This mix bag of emotions can make it challenging for us later on… our brain may not be able to shout “HAPPY ONLY” to us while experiencing something different because we now may associate happy things with sadness, fear, or another emotion.

Additionally, you may have experienced events in the past like sharing wonderful news only to have it clouded by a family tragedy the same day or getting a job promotion only for your house to flood the following morning. Life is always happening around us but sometimes we believe that when this good thing happens this bad thing will follow…and this is where I sat for awhile until I learned how to manage my anxiety and understand my emotions.

Tune into day to hear the whole story. My hope is that you grab some tips on how to self-sooth, regain clarity, and take control of your anxiety.