When my journey with anxiety began, everything changed. Anxiety turned my world upside down and forced me to dig deep within myself to expose fears and lies that were controlling me. It led me to cry myself to sleep many nights. It led me to cancel play dates out of fear. It led me to revert inside my home where I knew I was safe. Anxiety changed me…

But it also grew me…

Anxiety gave me the push to look within myself to find the power to fight. It opened my eyes to the person inside of me that deserved a voice. It became that catapult in my life that propelled me forward. It became part of my story. Anxiety changed my story…

When anxiety entered into my life, I no longer was the person I was before. Everything changed. The way I viewed life, the way I approached situations, the way I looked at people around me, the way I interacted with others, it all changed. I became unpredictable, even I no longer knew what to expect from myself. I felt like a stranger in my own body. But anxiety also gave me a reason to find my voice. It gave me the need to look within and allow my voice to be heard. It propelled me into discovering what it meant to be understood. It gave parts of me that never had a voice the chance to speak.

Anxiety changed everything for me, and so much of who I was changed along with it. I despised the change happening in me for months, I wanted to fight who I was becoming. I didn’t want anxiety to be a part of my story. I didn’t want to face what anxiety was bringing to the surface. I didn’t want who I was to change. But something happened when I embraced it. Something happened when I could embrace anxiety as part of my story.

I could become better.

Anxiety changed me…but it also grew me.

Anxiety made me realize the power of my voice. It opened my eyes to the person I didn’t allow to speak up. It opened the doors in my story of brokenness, vulnerability, defeat, and confinement and gave birth to a story of redemption, safety, victory, and freedom. It showed me what embracing my story, instead of fighting it, can do.

Sometimes our story brings aspects we wish it wouldn’t. Sometimes our story contains parts we wish it didn’t. Sometimes our story isn’t exactly what we would have written for ourselves. But there is freedom in embracing it completely. There is redemption in the storms and triumph on the other side of the valleys. But we never can experience what is waiting for us in the next chapter if we can’t embrace the current page.

What part of your story do you need to embrace right now? What part of your story could catapult you into a new chapter of freedom if you would embrace it fully right now? Even the messy parts can be an incredible life changing experience for us. Embrace your story, you never know what’s awaiting on the next page.