It's a Sunday afternoon, and you're walking around Target with your mom. You are laughing and joking with mom. You walk down the decor isle to cut through the store. Growing up, you were always told not to touch anything but now that you're older, you're smarter, and more careful. There is currently this big fad happening with sand hourglasses. You don't really understand the memorization over them, but you pick one up and flip it over. The sand is suppose to be relaxing as it falls into the bottom part of the glass, but instead you start to feel panic. You start to remember all of the things you were suppose to be doing. You start to think about the future. You start to think about all the things you have to do before the time runs out. You start to see your life fall with the grains of sand.
Every time I see a sand timer I think of Disney's Aladdin. Jafar puts Jasmine in an hourglass and as the sand falls, she loses room to breath. I always get anxious at that point in the movie because suffocation is painful way to die. I see this as a perfect metaphor for anxiety. Jasmine is trapped in a glass bubble of her own. She can't get out no matter how hard she fights. The sand starts to fall on her and weaken her ability to fight. As she is still fighting the sand gets heavier and brings her down. When the sand reaches her neck she becomes hopeless.
Living with anxiety makes one feel like they need to have everything figured out all at once. You feel like you need to know what your future will be. You need to know your life plans and decisions. You need to have an assignment done right away when you have 3 weeks to work on it. You feel like you need to be taking 18 credits every semester so you can graduate "on time." Anxiety makes it's victims believe they are failing in different subjects of life.
As people living with anxiety, we have to find a way to break free. We have to find our coping skills. Sometimes it just takes a few deep breaths. Sometimes it takes a brisk walk to clear our head, or a break to do something mindless like video games or watching Netflix. Coping skills for anxiety are different for each person, not everyone has the same level of anxiety.
We live in a world where anxiety is taking over many bodies and minds. Between grades, social media, GPAs, gossip, careers, money, our body image, power, or relationships, everyone seems to have anxiety to some extent. We need to find a balance of healthy anxiety and the anxiety that makes us insane. We need to find that thing that will save us from the enormous anxiety built around us.
I do not believe we should sit by waiting for our Aladdin to save us, but I believe we should be looking out for our Aladdin. Our Aladdin does not necessarily need to be a person, but our peace that saves us from the trapped hourglass.
