I am a word person and I love me a good quote. My Pinterest page is made up of many things, but by far, the majority of my pins are quotes. Words are meant to move us, to evoke emotion, to challenge our ways of thinking.
Words have been a powerful tool for me in my struggle to overcome anxiety. Scripture, self help books, fiction, non-fiction, lines from movies, and quotes I’ve just stumbled upon – they all have helped me through. They’ve made me think differently about my situation. They’ve given me courage to do something scary, hope for recovery, strength to press on.
Here are just some of the quotes that have gotten me through many an anxious moment, and there are many more. This is just the tip of the ice berg. I hope they’re as helpful to you as they have been to me.
“Be messy and complicated and afraid and show up anyways” – Glennon Doyle Melton
“Life is tough, my darling, but so are you.” – Stephanie Bennett Henry
“You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.” – Margaret Thatcher
“The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.” – William James
“What you are afraid to do is a clear indication of the next thing you need to do.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
“How completely satisfying to turn from our limitations to a God who has none.” – AW Tozer
“All of the things you have made it through only point to the strength God is stirring in you.” – Morgan Harper Nichols
“Tell the story of the mountain you climbed. Your words could become a page in someone else’s survival guide.” Morgan Harper Nichols
“These are the days that must happen to you.” – Walt Whitman
“Oh but that’s the irony, broken people are not fragile.” – Clinton Sammy Jr.
“Nothing great was ever done without much enduring.” – St. Catherine of Siena
“Mental pain is less dramatic than physical pain, but it is more common and also more hard to bear. The frequent attempt to conceal mental pain increases the burden. It is easier to say “My tooth is aching” than to say “My heart is broken.”” – CS Lewis
“Don’t believe everything you think.” – Quite a few people have said this, not sure who was the first.
“Sometimes fear does not subside and you must do it afraid.” – Elisabeth Elliot
“Let go of all the thoughts that don’t make you strong.” – unknown
“Be gentle. You are meeting parts of yourself you’ve been at war with for years.” – unknown
“Gather courage like wildflowers.” – Jak Major
“Perhaps the butterfly is proof that you can go through a great deal of darkness yet still become something beautiful.” – Beau Taplin
“So far you’ve survived 100% of your worst days.” – unknown
“And then I realized that to be more alive I had to be less afraid so I did it; I lost my fear and gained my whole life.” – Kiran Gawda
“I want to be in the arena. I want to be brave with my life. And when we make the choice to dare greatly, we sign up to get our asses kicked. We can choose courage or we can choose comfort, but we can’t have both. Not at the same time.” – Brene Brown
“Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.” Albus Dumbledore (Harry Potter)
“Don’t believe every worried thought you have. Worried thoughts are notoriously inaccurate.” – Renee Jain
“If you are always trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing you can be.” – Maya Angelou
‘We’re all pretty bizarre. Some of us are just better at hiding it, that’s all.” – The Breakfast Club
“There are times when you simply have to righteously hang on and outlast the devil.” – Ezra T. Benson
“What’s coming’ will come and we’ll meet it when it does” – Hagrid (Harry Potter)
“Just keep swimming.” – Dory, Finding Nemo
“We’ve got to live no matter how many skies have fallen.” – D.H. Lawrence
“We’re stronger in the places that we’ve been broken.” – Ernest Hemingway
“No grit, no pearl.” – unknown
“God does great things through the greatly wounded. God sees the broken as the best and he sees the best in the broken and he calls the wounded to be the world changers.” – Ann Voskamp
“Sit with it. Sit with it, sit with it, sit with it. Even though you want to run. Even though it’s heavy and difficult. Even though you’re not quite sure of the way through. Healing happens by feeling.” Dr. Rebecca Ray
“We need never be hopeless, because we can never be irreparably broken.” – John Green, Looking for Alaska
“Jesus can heal what you’re hiding.” – Jasmine Bennett
“Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.” – JK Rowling
“She was brave and strong and broken all at once.” – Anna Funder
“Never forget how wildly capable you are.” – Kylie Francis
“When it hurts – observe. Life is trying to teach you something.” – Anita Krizzan
“Nothing is hopeless; we must hope for everything.” – Madeleine L’Engle, A Wrinkle in Time
“Don’t let your struggle become your identity.” – unknown
“And here you are living despite it all.” – Rupi Kaur
“Courage isn’t having the strength to go on – it is going on when you don’t have strength.” Napoleon Bonaparte
“Struggle isn’t fun, but it is an opportunity to be brave.” – Rae Smith
The Hope Antidote 