Anxiety is something I have been challenged with for much of my life. This article, by one of my favorite authors, Paulo Coelho, shifted the idea of anxiety for me in a very positive way. I want to share it with you. Let me know what you think in the comments below. Enjoy. 

“Anxiety” by Paulo Coelho

There is nothing wrong with anxiety.

Although we cannot control God’s time, it is part of the human condition to want to receive the thing we are waiting for as quickly as possible.

Or to drive away whatever is causing our fear.

That is so from childhood onwards, until we reach the age when we become indifferent to life. Because as long as we are intensely connected to the present moment, we will always be waiting anxiously for someone or something.

How can you tell a passionate heart to be still and contemplate the miracles of Creation in silence, free of tension, fear and unanswerable questions?

Anxiety is part of love, and should not be blamed because of that.

How can you tell someone not to worry when he has invested his money and his life in a dream and has yet to see any results? The farmer cannot speed the progress of the seasons in order to pick the fruit he planted, but he waits impatiently for the coming of autumn and harvest-time.

How can you ask a warrior not to feel anxious before a battle? He has trained to the point of exhaustion for that moment; he has given of his best, and while he believes he is prepared, he fears that all his efforts could prove to be in vain.

Anxiety was born in the very same moment as mankind. And since we will never be able to master it, we will have to learn to live with it—just as we have learned to live with storms.

*Above from MANUSCRIPT FOUND IN ACCRA

This article originally appeared on Paulo Coelho’s blog.

Eric Handler is the publisher and co-founder of Positively Positive. Check out his TEDx talk. Follow Eric on TWITTER.

*Image courtesy of Das blaue Sofa.