You’ll learn that nothing bad happens if you don’t use your anxious actions and, just as important, that you can handle your anxious response without any assistance from other people or your anxious actions. This is learning at a deep level. Stepping toward discomfort is learning to face, rather than turn away from, your anxious response. As you face your anxious response, you’ll grow more confident and less anxious. You may be thinking, I face my anxious response sometimes, and it doesn’t work.

424