What is the difference between fear and anxiety?
Fear is our natural response to things that are meant to make us afraid – from peering over the ledge of a tall building to making the speech at your best friend’s wedding. Fear is an inevitable physical response. Much like a sneeze, a yawn or a burp.
However, we are only anxious about things we have little or influence over. It can be about a variety of things – the state of our country’s politics, the plight of our football team or aging, sickness or the loss of loved ones.
Given we have no control over things that make us anxious, it is futile. On the flipside, it can exercise a great degree of control over our lives. It can ruin our health, sabotage our careers and render us incapable of leaving the bed.
To be anxious is to pick an addictive riddle that has no solution. When we see this clearly, can we put down the riddle and walk away?
Observations 