Instant Panic

Ever have this happen to you? One morning, I woke up feeling pretty good—until I realized I couldn’t find my phone. Instant panic. My heart was racing, my mind spiraling, and suddenly I was convinced I’d left it in the grocery store yesterday... maybe the parking lot… or wait, did I drop it in the produce aisle while pondering the ripeness of avocados?

I tore through the house like a detective on a crime scene. I checked the couch cushions twice, dug through my bag like a raccoon, and even looked in the fridge because, well, who knows? Anxiety had taken the wheel, and I was just along for the ride.

Just as I was about to declare my phone officially missing and start crafting a “Lost Phone” poster, I heard a tiny vibration. It was coming from... the back pocket of the jeans I was wearing. 

Yep. The whole time, my phone was literally on me.

Of course, my anxious part didn’t just laugh this off. Nope, it whispered, “Well, if you can lose your phone in your pocket, what else are you missing? Your car keys? Your sense of direction? YOUR ENTIRE LIFE PURPOSE?!”

And that’s when I took a deep breath, I told my anxious part to take a seat, and promised to save the existential crisis for after coffee.

Anxiety can take the smallest hiccup and turn it into a full-blown investigation, but sometimes you’ve just got to laugh it off and remind yourself: even when things seem out of control, it’s usually not as bad as your brain makes it out to be.