100 Days Without Anxiety

Bonjour and Hello Lovely Readers,

I experience anxiety with pretty much everything I do, even from the simplest daily tasks; such as leaving my house and walking down the road. Anytime I don't have a metaphorical safety net, is scary and brings on some form of a panic. I feel as though my flight, fight or flight response is constantly on fright mode. Whilst my anxiety is great for keeping me out of danger it’s limiting my life, social activities, and damaging my career and relationships. I know I have come a long loooooong way from where I was a year ago, completing graded exposure tasks, writing journals and making video diaries. However, I'm still a little scaredy cat and will often refuse to do anything out of my bubbled life or comfort zone and hate any form of sudden change.

I recently stumbled upon Michelle Porter and her 100 Days Without Fear, she challenged herself to conquer her fears over 100 days, and I instantly fell in love with this concept. The more I read the more I thought: "I can do this, as long as I pace myself and make the challenges bigger as I go along rather than going way out of my comfort zone straight away" (again more in a graded exposure style), "I can and will conquer my fears for 100 days". Michelle if you somehow end up reading this, thank you so much for sharing your journey, you're a real inspiration!

However when it came down to it; I realised I didn’t really have 100 fears, sure I have the generic: Dark, Spiders, losing control etc but not 100 days worth. I soon realised all these silly little fears I have stem from my anxiety; So how about 100 days without anxiety?
Now, don’t get me wrong there’s no quick fix with anxiety/depression or any other mental illness, and I know I can’t magic away my anxiety for 100 days. I'm going to have to conquer it and carry on to the beat of my own drum.

I've decided to take further inspiration for this project from Dare: The New Way to End Anxiety and Stop Panic Attacks which empowers anxiety sufferers; by teaching us, that anxiety is an adrenaline response. When us sufferers start to feel panicky, we can decide to change that panic into that rushing feeling of excitement and adventure, we can conquer our anxiety and get on with our lives (such fun)!
Having a love for roller coasters, and pretty much anything adrenaline inducing, I felt like I could do this well. The adrenaline rush is a feeling I adore. (Which is odd because it’s often achieved when you are the least in control! Confused? Yeah me too! Anxiety isn’t always logical). My happy memories and the sense of achievement that I have associated with adrenaline rushes means that by changing my anxiety panic into excitement I am using positive reinforcement with my own body. 


Bear in mind I'm starting small and do not have a big budget for activities, they may not always be super exciting activities to read about but I’m already ridiculously proud of myself for doing this and I’d love to bring you on my journey with me. 
If you have any suggestions of ideas or activities you think I might enjoy attempting or that you’d look forward to reading about/watching; please comment below or get in touch (Contact Page) and let me know. (Seriously, I’ve got about 40-50 ideas but I need some more.) If you have done a similar challenge please share your stories, I’d love to hear about, read and watch them!

Thank you for reading and your support,
Please stay tuned as you will be receiving updates on 100 Days Without Anxiety very very soon. I aim to upload a new challenge every weekend.

xo