I've been struggling recently with keeping my anxiety at bay. One of the key things I've been working at is this: even if you feel like complete shit, act as "if" you don't. This is all from William James, but you can see the influence in lots of contemporary self-help manuals, blogs, articles, therapies, etc.

Do one small thing to counteract the negative voice inside that says, "No, no you can't. You're a failure already. No." Act as if your inner voice always says, "Yes." Act as if. And when you act as if, your brain will follow your body. Your action is a physical, bodily movement that ignores the doubts, the worries, the fears, the hurts, and just says, "I do. I act. I move." If we act as if often enough, we begin to build habits that structure our brains away from the doubts and toward something better: a world where we can say "yes" to ourselves.

It's an Emily Dickinson kind of day, so I'll just close with this:

I dwell in Possibility –
A fairer House than Prose –
More numerous of Windows –
Superior – for Doors –

Of Chambers as the Cedars –
Impregnable of eye –
And for an everlasting Roof
The Gambrels of the Sky –

Of Visitors – the fairest –
For Occupation – This –
The spreading wide my narrow Hands
To gather Paradise –