Disclaimer: If the anxiety that you experience is not your own,

This is for you. In other words,

If it visits but does not reside.

In other words,

If you don’t believe

That there is a reason to be anxious

And find that it presses in but does not arise

Or generate from deeply held beliefs

That you nurture inside your mind.

So, if it’s not your own, here’s some advice,

Or rather, something that I’ve tried

And found effective now and then.

When anxiety comes for a visit,

I don’t just welcome it in,

I wrap it up in my embrace.

I pull it in, pull it in, pull it in.

Not the worry but the feeling of discomfort

As I would a laughing child who tries

To wiggle its way out

Of my embrace.

And upon encountering such love, desire, and acceptance,

It seems to flee. I don’t know

If that’s what really happens,

But that’s how it seems.