The past is gone, the future uncertain. today is now and I face it head on.

Anxiety is largely a scheduling error. It takes a difficulty that lives on Thursday and runs it on Monday, at full volume, in a version where you handle it badly.

The Thursday version is nearly always more manageable than the Monday rehearsal, because on Thursday you are actually there — with the room, the tone of voice, the information you did not have three days earlier.

Facing something head on does not mean feeling brave about it. It mostly means declining to fight it early, on worse ground, alone in your kitchen at eleven at night.