This is Optimal Living Daily Episode 2063, Do the Anxiety Detox by Kering Cassidy,

and Friends with Benefits by Meredith Knight, both with LiveHappy.com,

and a very own personal narrator, Justin Mollick, reading to you from some amazing blogs and books

to help you optimize your life. Topics include personal development, productivity,

and minimalism mostly. Some of the authors that I feature with their permission include

Zen Habits, Mark and Angel, the Minimalists, and more. Now let's get right to today's two posts

as we optimize your life. Do the Anxiety Detox by Kering Cassidy with LiveHappy.com.

It is easy to start a journey and easy to finish once you are close to the end.

The difficult part is what happens in the middle when you've lost your initial enthusiasm but are

not in sight of your final goal. The pitfall of overconfidence. This middle zone is challenging

for several reasons. If you experience some initial success, you might have gotten overconfident

and stopped doing the very behaviors that led to that success. For example, if you are following

my six steps for overcoming worry, you probably started feeling better. Then you may have decided

that you no longer needed to keep track of your thoughts, avoid reassurance seeking, or attempt to

worry exposure. Big mistake. Remind yourself that the best way to keep worry in check is to turn

the skills you've learned so far into part of your daily mental hygiene. Too busy to stop worrying.

I've really enjoyed working with LiveHappy Art Director Kim Baker. Kim explained how her hectic

life has occasionally kept her from strictly adhering to the worry detox. This offers a great

illustration of something else that gets in the way of worry management skills when we are in the

middle zone. Kim has gotten caught up in the tyranny of the urgent. When worked deadlines,

family matters, and other immediate needs take precedence over what might in the long run be

most important learning to conquer anxiety. Kim has great intentions to overcome her anxieties,

...