If you're reading this, there's a good chance you've been living under the weight of health anxiety. And not just the occasional "I hope this sore throat isn't something serious" kind of worry. I'm talking about the constant checking, the Googling of symptoms, the late-night panic that something is wrong with your body and no one's caught it yet.
I get it. It's exhausting. And it can feel like you're living in a body you don't trust.
But I want to offer you something today. Not a quick fix. Not a magic pill. Just a mindset shift -- and a simple but powerful practice that can help you take your life back.
When you were born, you had two natural fears: falling and loud noises. That's it. Everything else -- including health anxiety -- was learned.
You learned to be afraid of every bodily sensation. You learned that tightness in your chest might mean something catastrophic. You learned to scan your body like a detective and catastrophize every headache, every skipped heartbeat.
Here's the good news: what you learned, you can unlearn.
Anxiety is your body's alarm system. When you live in a constant state of fear, that alarm can get stuck in the "on" position. Your brain thinks it's protecting you by obsessing over your health, but most of the time it's reacting to false alarms. You're not in danger -- you're used to feeling like you are.
So we stop running. We stop trying to out‑think anxiety. And we do something that sounds counterintuitive -- we feel it.
Mapping is a simple practice that helps your brain relearn that uncomfortable sensations aren't dangerous.
Start with two minutes. Then five. Then ten. Work your way up to thirty. Over time, your body learns: "This is uncomfortable, but it's not dangerous." You re‑teach your nervous system that it's safe to live in your body.
Avoidance feeds anxiety. Every time you run from a sensation -- by checking, Googling, or distracting -- you teach your brain that it was dangerous. When you sit with it, label it, and don't make it mean anything catastrophic, you teach your brain: "I can handle this." That's when real healing begins.
You are not broken or weak. You're a person who learned to fear their own body -- and now you're unlearning it. Get still. Get quiet. Sit with the fear instead of running from it. It's not about overpowering anxiety; it's about no longer letting it call the shots.
You are more than your symptoms. You are more than your worry. You are not your anxiety. You are a whole, capable, resilient human being. And you're going to be okay.