What Would Blair Waldorf Do?

Hey Guys x

So today's post is gonna be a little chat about one way that I've learned to handle my anxiety.

I started uni on October 2nd. And when I say I was terrified, I mean I was TERRIFIED. I'm in my third year now, so this definitely shouldn't feel as daunting as it did, and of course, that's to do with my anxiety.

I have anxiety surrounding various aspects of my life, the main one of which is about being in social situations. So having to sit in 2 hr long seminars multiple times a week is a big source of fear for me, and part of the reason why I hate going.

So anyway, this year the anxiety was, and is, really bad. Meditation wasn't working, CBT never really worked for me, and I was just so worried about this.

While I was creating a new laptop screensaver for myself, I came across the phrase 'What Would Blair Waldorf Do?'

Blair Waldorf is a character from the TV show Gossip Girl, one of my favourite shows, and she's one of my favourite characters. She's confident and self-assured and amazing at basically everything, and she's always been someone that I've looked up to, since I started watching the show.

So I started to think about Blair, about what she's do in my situation. And I knew exactly what she'd do. She wouldn't be nervous or anxious because she completely owns everything she does. She's not paying 9,000 £/$ a year to be scared out of attending classes, or to not end the year with the awesome degree that she'd been working for for three years.

So I channelled Blair. I walked down the street with my head held high.

I went into my first class thinking that I was Blair, saying to myself that I'm Blair. And do you know what? It actually helped.

I'm not saying that I've cured my anxiety, because I definitely haven't. But it felt a bit like acting. In my head I was Blair, tricking my body into thinking that I wasn't as anxious as I really was.

So, that's a piece of advice that I have for anyone with anxiety, when it feels like nothing else is working. If you're being forced to do something that you're afraid of doing, channel the most confident person you know. Whether your best friend, a parent, a sibling, a celebrity or a TV character. Channel them, pretend to be them, and hopefully your anxieties will ease off a bit.

Have you tried this before? Did it work for you? If you have any of your own advice about anxiety, let me know in the comments!

Lou xx