What The Bass Clarinet Means To Me: Anxiety Be Gone!

Anxiety is not something I ever thought I had...I just thought I was a freak.  I could be standing in the middle of a room and feel a tightness in my chest over nothing.  I don't like small talking people, and I don't like trying to make a thousand friends.  I have anxiety about different things every day, and I have been like that since I was...5.  I remember that clearly...but I never had anxiety when I was playing...not after I switched to bass.


You might think that that's really nice and all, but how does that apply to you...well, it applies because there is something to be said for the thing that you are supposed to be doing.  You know what I mean?  I mean, you might get a little nervous before a performance, but that's a LONG way from feeling anxiety all the time. 


Finding the thing that you love to do that frees you from anxiety for even a moment is a VERY easy way to find other things that revolve around the thing that does not make your feel anxious.  You would be shocked to find all the things that you can do that revolve around the thing that you love to do.


WRITE ABOUT IT



Look, I'm doing that right now!  You can write about literally anything that revolves around it, and you will be able to keep writing as many times as the mood strikes you.  Hell, you could write a book.

DO IT



You do not have to be greatest of all time at what you do.  You just don't have to be.  You can be someone who LOVES it, and that is FAR more valuable than being the best ever.  Yeah, you can have high hopes and make lofty goals, but you just need to do it.  This is going to help you to have fun when you are trying to get to where you want to go.  Sure, you might have to wait a while, but waiting is better than NOT doing the thing you need to be doing and feeling like shit about it because the thing that you are doing is making you anxious as hell.



TALK ABOUT IT



Talking about the thing is going to make it feel more lively for you...technically this blogging counts as talking, or you can simply find a social media platform where you can talk to other people who do the thing.  You can get more out of this than you could possibly imagine, and you can do it for a long time without ever stopping.  If it makes you chatty, you are going to feel less stressed about like in general.  You get rid of the anxiety just long enough to enjoy the thing.



HELP SOMEONE ELSE DO IT



Helping people is the best thing you can do for yourself.  It really does feel better to help others than it does to help yourself, and you can learn about the thing even more than you thought.  You will make friends, and you will have a way of working doing the thing.  That's teaching :)


The time is now...I certainly don't know how to cure anxiety, but I know how I get around it as much as possible :)  I hope this helps...