What to Do When Anxiety Hijacks Your Day

Let me ask you something.

Have you ever noticed how one feeling can completely change the direction of your day?

You wake up with good intentions.
You have a plan.
Things you actually want to do.

And then a feeling shows up — anxiety, frustration, loneliness, disappointment — and suddenly everything slows down… or shuts down.

Not because anything terrible happened.
Not because you’re incapable of doing your to-do list.
But because that feeling took over.

Most of us were never taught what to do when emotions show up.
Well, truth be told, we were taught what to do — it’s just that what we were taught keeps us stuck.

So when an emotion appears, we default to what we know.

We react — snapping, crying, spiraling.
We resist — telling ourselves we shouldn’t feel this way and trying to push through on sheer willpower.
Or we avoid — over-eating, over-scrolling, sitting on the couch, waiting until we feel better.

And when none of that really works, we assume the problem is us.
That something is wrong with us.

But what if the real work isn’t trying to make emotions disappear?

What if the real skill is learning how to feel — without letting emotions run your life?

The Skill No One Ever Taught Us

Let’s stay right there for a moment.

Learning how to feel without letting emotions take over looks like this:

Being able to feel any emotion — the good ones and the not-so-good ones — and still move forward with your day.

Feeling a hard emotion and continuing on doesn’t mean you don’t feel things.
And it definitely doesn’t mean you’re a robot.

It simply means you’ve learned how not to let one feeling take over everything.

This isn’t about sucking it up.
It’s not about being tough.
And it’s not about pretending you’re fine.

It’s about compassion and emotional resilience.

It’s knowing you can feel sadness, frustration, anxiety, or disappointment — and still live your life.

Still keep your word to yourself.
Still take the next step.
Still show up for the day you intended to have. 💛

A Real-Life Example: Anxiety in the Passenger Seat 🚗

Let me give you a very real, very personal example.

I’m a planner.

Every Sunday, I plan out my week. I open my calendar and drop everything in — coaching appointments, my hair appointment, meetings with my coach, recording my podcast… and all the regular life stuff too.

Errands.
Household chores.
You know — all the stuff.

I go to bed knowing exactly what the plan is for tomorrow.

And then I wake up.

My plan pops into my brain…

…and boom — anxiety tries to take over.

If I let it, anxiety can absolutely hijack my day.

Instead of working my plan, I start stewing.
Worrying.
Fussing over this and that.

And suddenly, I’m stuck.

You’ve felt this too.

You know what it’s like when anxiety invites you to sit on the couch, wrap up in a blanket, cancel your plans, and do nothing “until you feel better.”

But here’s what I’ve learned.

Instead of fighting anxiety by pushing through anyway —
or cuddling up with it on the couch —

I acknowledge it.

I literally say in my head:
“Okay. I see you, anxiety. There you are.”

And then I talk to it.

“Here’s the deal. I’ve got things to do today.
Things I want to do.
Things I promised myself I would do.

You can come along —
but you are not allowed to take over.”

I picture myself in a car.

And I imagine anxiety sitting in the passenger seat.

It can ride along.
It can make a little noise if it wants.
But it does not get to sit in the driver’s seat and steer the car.

I’m still going where I said I would go.
I’m still doing what I said I would do.

Anxiety can come with me —
but it’s not driving.

The Four Ways We Handle Emotions

If you listen closely to that story, you can hear what’s really happening.

Everything I’m tempted to do in that moment — the worrying, the stewing, the sitting on the couch — is just an attempt to not feel anxiety.

And that’s true for all of us.

When an emotion shows up, we usually default to one of four responses.

1️⃣ Resisting the emotion
“I shouldn’t feel this way.”
“This means something is wrong.”
“I need to make this go away.”

It’s like holding the door shut on the emotion — and wondering why it keeps banging louder.

2️⃣ Reacting to the emotion
This is when the feeling grabs the wheel.

We snap.
We cry.
We send the text.
We make the decision from the feeling.

It feels relieving in the moment — and costly later.

3️⃣ Avoiding the emotion
Over-eating.
Over-scrolling.
Over-drinking.
Over-working.
Or checking out and waiting until we feel better.

Avoiding works temporarily — until the feeling comes back louder.

4️⃣ Allowing the emotion
The option most of us were never taught.

Allowing means noticing the feeling with compassion…
letting it be there…
and still moving forward.

Not liking it.
Not fixing it.
Not making it mean anything.

Just letting it exist — without letting it take over.

Feelings Are Meant to Exist 🌱

Feelings are a beautiful and necessary part of the human experience.

They are the contrast.

The sweet and the salty.
The easier parts and the harder parts.
Joy and sorrow.
Comfort and growth.

We don’t get one without the other.

If we experienced only positive emotion, we wouldn’t even recognize it as positive.
We wouldn’t know joy without sorrow.
We wouldn’t appreciate peace without discomfort.
We wouldn’t grow without resistance.

And yet, so many of us walk around believing life should feel better than it does.

We assume something has gone wrong if we feel sad, anxious, disappointed, or frustrated.

But the human experience is meant to be a balance.

So much of our suffering doesn’t come from the emotion itself —
it comes from fighting what’s already here.

The Real Cost of Avoiding Discomfort

When we pile hate on top of hate —
and anxiety on top of anxiety —

we lose more than peace.

We lose momentum.
We lose growth.
And often, we lose our dreams.

In our effort to be happy all the time, we avoid the very discomfort that would help us become the woman who actually creates the life she wants.

There is a cost to avoiding negative emotions.

But when you stop letting emotions take the wheel, something changes.

You become more willing to fail.
To keep trying.
To show up consistently without needing to be perfect.

And when you live this way, you increase your capacity to create the life you desire.

Because the truth is this:

About half the time, you won’t feel great.

And that’s not a problem.
Nothing has gone wrong.

That is the human experience. 💖