October brings with it the vibrant colors of fall, the crunch of crisp leaves, and of course the excitement of Halloween, a holiday filled with spooky costumes and ghoulish decorations. While Halloween is a time for playful thrills, it also holds valuable lessons about how to obtain freedom from anxiety.
On Halloween, we willingly embrace the spine-tingling fun of dressing up as terrifying creatures, decorating our homes with creepy cobwebs, and watching horror movies that send chills down our spines. We enjoy the heightened sensations of fear because, deep down, we know these spooky experiences are make-believe. It’s all part of the fun, and we relish the adrenaline that comes with being startled.
But what if I told you that the brain on anxiety is doing the same thing as the brain on Halloween? The difference lies in how we interpret the fear. On Halloween, we identify fear as exciting and thrilling, but in moments of real-life anxiety, we label it as uncomfortable and unbearable.
The key to overcoming anxiety is learning to recognize when our brain is setting off a false alarm. Imagine your brain tells you you’ve just encountered a real-life vampire, but in reality, it’s just your neighbor Bob in a silly costume. When we treat anxiety as a serious threat—running from it, fighting it, or freezing in its presence—we reinforce to our brain that we are in actual danger. This only escalates the anxiety and keeps us trapped in a vicious cycle.
Breaking the anxiety cycle means doing the opposite: pausing, acknowledging the fear, and making contact with what we’re afraid of. By doing this, we teach our brain that we are okay, resilient, and fully capable of handling discomfort. Just like the spooky decorations we know aren’t real, anxiety too is often just a false alarm.
So this Halloween, as you delight in the make-believe scares, consider how you can play with your anxiety rather than run from it. After all, the real power lies in recognizing the difference between a harmless costume and a true danger.
