How to Let Go of Anxiety

First the bad news: anxiety exists (sorry). As I talk about in my new book, Take Back Your Mind: Buddhist Advice for Anxious Times, it shows up as this veil that separates us from the world around us and sometimes it feels like that veil is impossible to lift. The other day, I got an email from a meditation student of mine who went to the doctor after facing some pretty horrible circumstances. The diagnosis in the half-hour consult? “You will be anxious for the rest of your life.” No wonder she wrote to me, terrified. Telling someone that they will always be anxious is only going to make them more anxious.