Tips For Managing Anxiety and Intuition

What if?

The root of most anxious thoughts and feelings, if not all. It tries to predict every outcome of the future and interpret every action of the past, even acting as the grand clock of time, in hopes that it will change something that has already occurred. It can be a tool for prevention or a prison for torment depending on how it’s used.

I have struggled severely with anxiety in the past, and it still attempts to cripple me to this day. How do I manage it?

I disempower it.

The moment I feel a thought — primarily a negative one — about the future, I immediately bring myself back to the present moment by telling myself, “This hasn’t happened yet, and it more than likely won’t.”

The thing about anxiety is that it’s not a bad thing to experience. It’s one of the many helpful ways that your body warns you of danger. It wants to keep you safe. It can become paralyzing — especially in excess — and prevent you from doing anything outside of your comfort zone.

Anxiety is like a smoke alarm that goes off when you're cooking on a skillet. It was designed to save your life, not to convince you that the house is burning down every time the kitchen gets warm. The problem isn’t the alarm — it’s when it never turns off.

When anxiety takes over, it blurs your ability to think clearly. It turns your mind into a crowded room where everyone is talking at once, all of them panicked, all of them convinced they’re right. In that noise, it becomes almost impossible to hear anything calm, steady, or grounded.

This is where intuition gets misunderstood.

Intuition isn’t loud. It doesn’t rush. It doesn’t argue. It doesn’t catastrophize. Anxiety, on the other hand, speaks urgently. It repeats itself. It uses fear as punctuation. When anxiety is running the show, intuition gets drowned out — not because it’s gone, but because it’s being interrupted constantly.

Think of intuition like a quiet GPS recalculating in the background. Anxiety is the passenger yelling, “TURN AROUND. YOU MISSED IT. WE’RE LOST.” Over time, you stop trusting the GPS because the shouting feels more convincing.

So how do you hear intuition again?

You don’t force it. You create enough quiet for it to speak.

For me, that starts with separating facts from predictions. Anxiety lives in what if. Intuition lives in what is. When I feel myself spiraling, I ask:

• What is actually happening right now?

• What am I assuming?

• What evidence do I have that this thought is true?
  

Most of the time, anxiety is trying to solve a problem that doesn’t exist yet. It wants certainty in a world that doesn’t offer it. And when certainty isn’t available, it fills the gaps with worst-case scenarios.

Below are a few situations where anxiety may step in, what it sounds like, and what you could do in these moments. See which one you can relate to.

1. In Relationships

What anxiety says: “They haven’t texted back. I must’ve said something wrong.”

“They’re pulling away.”

“What if they’re losing interest?”

Anxiety turns silence into rejection and imagination into evidence. It replays conversations, dissects tone, and convinces you that something must be wrong — even when nothing has been said.

How to stop it: Pause and name the reality:

• Fact: They haven’t replied yet.

• Story: I did something wrong.

  
  

Then bring yourself back to the present moment: “Nothing has actually happened. I don’t need to solve a problem that hasn’t shown up.”

If a pattern truly exists, it will reveal itself without you needing to chase it. Anxiety wants answers immediately. Trust is built by allowing space.

2. At Work or With Career Decisions

What anxiety says: “What if I mess this up?”

“They’re going to realize I’m not as capable as they think.”

“I should already be further along by now.”

Anxiety compares your behind-the-scenes to everyone else’s highlight reel. It turns growth into pressure and learning into proof that you’re failing.

How to stop it: Shift from outcome-thinking to task-thinking.

Instead of: “What if this goes wrong?”Ask: “What is the next clear, manageable step?”

Anxiety wants you to carry the entire future at once. Grounding yourself in the next action brings you back into control.

3. Personal Achievements and Success

What anxiety says: “Don’t get too excited — something might go wrong.”

“This probably won’t last.”

“People are going to expect more from me now.”

Anxiety has a habit of dimming joy before it even arrives, as if staying small will protect you from disappointment.

How to stop it: Let success exist without negotiating with fear. You don’t need to justify it. You don’t need to downplay it.

Try this grounding statement: “I can let this be good without predicting what comes next.”

Enjoying the moment doesn’t cause loss. Anxiety just wants to keep you braced.

4. Making Yourself Visible (Posting, Speaking, Being Seen)

What anxiety says: “What if people judge me?”

“What if I sound stupid?”

“What if I regret this later?”

Anxiety equates visibility with danger. It convinces you that being seen equals being exposed — even when nothing bad has happened before.

How to stop it: Remind yourself: visibility is not permanence. You are allowed to grow in public. You are allowed to change your mind.

Ask: “Is this actually unsafe — or just uncomfortable?”

Discomfort isn’t a warning sign. It’s often a sign of expansion.

5. Decisions About the Future

What anxiety says: “What if I choose wrong?”“What if this ruins everything?”“I need to be 100% sure before I move forward.”

Anxiety wants guarantees in a world that doesn’t offer them. It freezes you in indecision by convincing you that one wrong move will undo everything.

How to stop it: Trade certainty for alignment. Ask yourself: “Does this feel like the best decision with the information I have right now?”

You don’t need a lifetime plan. You need a next step you can adjust from

Grounding yourself isn’t about pretending everything is fine. It’s about anchoring back into reality instead of imagination. Simple things help: feeling your feet on the floor, slowing your breathing, naming what you can see around you, or reminding yourself of times when your anxiety was convinced something terrible would happen — and it didn’t.

As the noise settles, something interesting happens. Your decisions feel less frantic. Your thoughts feel less sharp. You stop scanning for danger and start noticing information. That’s intuition coming back online — not as a mystical voice, but as clarity, gut-level knowing, and calm direction.

Anxiety says, “Something is wrong. Act now.”

Intuition says, “Pause. Pay attention.”

The goal isn’t to eliminate anxiety. That’s unrealistic. The goal is to stop letting it sit in the driver’s seat. Anxiety can ride along. It can point things out. But it doesn’t get to decide where you’re going.

With practice, you learn the difference between a warning and a worry. Between preparation and paralysis. Between fear-based thinking and inner guidance.

And slowly, the question “What if?” loses its grip — replaced by something steadier:

“What’s actually happening right now?”

That’s where clarity lives. That’s where intuition can finally be heard.