Do you ever wake from dreams or nightmares that hit so hard they carry into your first sip of coffee, then lunch, and linger through dinner? The kind of heaviness that only lifts when you finally go back to sleep?

I recently had one of those days. Caught up in this deep, full-body emotion. And it all stemmed from dreams I can barely remember. But did it really come from the dream world, or is it something deeper, something rooted in real life? I think many of us can relate to that quiet undercurrent we carry. A tension. A weight. A pressure just beneath the surface. Some feel it in passing waves, others in quiet flickers, and some of us feel it so deeply it stops us in our tracks.

Everything in me felt on edge. Anxiety on high alert.

I’ve always dealt with anxiety, but I used to call it mostly social. It’s time I tell the truth. My anxiety runs deeper than that. It lives under the surface, in the in-between moments, in places I don’t always expect. I try to think myself out of it, or at least cope with the emotions and shift the mood. It may take me all day, but I keep working at it. No matter how deep it pulls me. No matter how heavy it feels. I keep going.

Lately, the weight has been harder to shake. Some dreams feel just out of reach. And I find myself wondering if they’ll ever become real. I fear what life will look like if they don’t. I fear what this country is becoming, and what that might mean for our future, for the kind of life we want to live.

And still, I try to hold on.

I’ve always tried to see through the shadows of anxiety and view life as half full, but it isn’t always easy when anxiety makes everything feel half empty. And in this chaotic world of today, it’s even harder. But I believe this: the cup of life is still, and will always be, half full. And we can fill it up. Bit by bit. Even on the hardest days.

Just hold on to that thought.