ANXIETY is part of being human – we all have it. And to get anxious in certain situations is normal, everyone does. Most people even experience high anxiety occasionally since things such as tests, interviews, public speaking, first dates and competitive sports can make anyone pretty anxious.A survival instinct evolved over millions of years in order to protect us, anxiety involves a series of reactions and reflexes in our mind and body that help prepare us to avoid or deal with dangerous situations (the fight-or-flight response). And for most of the time it sits quietly in the background waiting to spring into action at the first sign of any threat. In the examples above (tests, interviews, first dates etc.) the threat involves possible embarrassment, shame, ridicule and rejection if we fail – all of which really hurt us.And so, we all walk around with this in-built survival instinct watching over us, sensing danger and letting us know about it by making us anxious. Usually this is barely noticeable, sometimes we feel it more strongly, occasionally it overwhelms us – it all depends on how relaxed and safe we feel. This is natural. This is normal anxiety. But for some of us, things change... our anxiety starts to grow stronger. It comes out more and more, for no apparent reason, and we begin to get too anxious, too easily, too often… Why does this happen and how do we stop it?