As parents, the words we choose when speaking to our anxious children can have a powerful impact on how they learn to manage their fears. Language can either reinforce anxiety or help a child build confidence in facing their worries. In particular, parents often use demand statements and protective statements in an attempt to ease their child’s distress, but these can unintentionally reinforce anxious thinking. Instead, shifting to supportive statements can help children feel validated while also fostering resilience and bravery.

When a child struggles with anxiety, a parent’s instinct is to help. It’s natural to want to ease their distress, shield them from discomfort, and do whatever it takes to make them feel safe. However, this well-meaning response can backfire.

This is called accommodation—when parents adjust their behavior to reduce a child’s anxiety. While it may provide short-term relief, it unintentionally sends the message that the world is dangerous, that anxiety is too overwhelming to handle, and that they need a parent to feel safe. Over time, accommodations make anxiety worse, not better.

Anxiety has a sneaky way of convincing us that we need to protect ourselves from discomfort at all costs. When we feel anxious, our brains tell us to do something to make it stop—whether that’s avoiding a situation, overthinking it, or seeking reassurance. These behaviors may provide temporary relief, but in the long run, they reinforce anxiety, making it stronger and harder to manage.

Anxiety is a natural and protective response to perceived danger or stress, but when it spirals out of control, it can affect our daily lives in a variety of ways. The anxiety cycle is a self-perpetuating loop that keeps worry, fear, and avoidance alive. Understanding this cycle is the first step in breaking free from its grip. In this post, we’ll walk through each stage of the anxiety cycle to help you better understand how anxiety develops and what you can do to start managing it.

In the world of art therapy, bilateral art stands out as a unique and transformative practice. This technique, which involves creating art using both hands simultaneously, may seem like a simple scribble, but its benefits are profound. By engaging the brain and body at the same time, bilateral art bridges the gap between science and creativity, offering a powerful tool for healing and personal growth.

When most people think about anxiety, their immediate reaction is, "I just want it to go away." But here's an unpopular opinion: We don’t want anxiety to disappear entirely. The goal of anxiety therapy isn’t to eliminate anxiety, but rather to change your relationship with it.

When anxiety strikes, it's natural to want to understand its source. After all, if you can figure out why you're anxious, you might be able to solve the problem, right? Unfortunately, that's not always the case. In fact, focusing on the "why" can often do more harm than good. Here’s why understanding the cause of your anxiety may not be the answer you’re looking for.

In the realm of anxiety management, our mindset plays a pivotal role in how we perceive and respond to challenges. Often, our default mode of thinking can either amplify our anxiety or empower us to navigate through it with resilience. This is where the shift from rigid to flexible thinking becomes not just beneficial, but transformative.

Anxiety has a sneaky way of making us want to retreat, to shut down, and to avoid whatever makes us feel uneasy. Whether it’s putting off a difficult conversation, procrastinating on a project, or avoiding social situations, these actions seem to offer temporary relief from discomfort. That relief from discomfort gives us the false notion of protection from discomfort. However, it actually maintains the cycle of anxiety and reinforces anxiety’s grip on you over time.