What Do Accepting And Letting Go of Anxiety Mean?

Hello Nils,
Acceptance is one of the most difficult concepts not just to understand but to put into practice. Questioning it and wondering how it works are very good things. We don't grow when things are easy.
I love your guitar metaphor. If you are learning to play a D chord and keep getting it wrong, you will know it. Of course you want to play it right. Your teacher also would want you to play it right. He or she wouldn't say, "Oh, just accept that you can't play it and play something else instead." That wouldn't work and would be both avoiding the issue and giving up. Anxiety drives our impulse (we all have this impulse) to avoid problems and give up. In the case of learning to play the guitar, anxiety over playing the chord incorrectly might cause you to avoid practicing, avoid your lessons and the teacher, and ultimately give up. The only thing you'd accept is that you "can't" play the chord. The result would be suffering.
True acceptance is different. Rather than growing increasingly frustrated at mistakes playing the D chord, being hard on yourself for it, telling yourself that you'll "never" get it/ "always" mess up, worrying about the time and money you're "wasting," questioning yourself as a musician, feeling performance anxiety, you gently release these thoughts (or whatever specific thoughts you are actually having -- these were just examples). This is where acceptance comes in. You don't accept that you're doomed to never get the D chord right. Instead, you accept the process behind it and use that to reduce your anxious thoughts and feelings about the situation. This involves noticing your anxious thoughts and emotions and then thinking about them differently. In this example, you might say, "I am struggling with this, and I don't like it. But it is a single situation. I know that music is complex and learning to play an instrument is difficult. I want to play the guitar well, so I accept that this process might be slow sometimes. I am not going to berate or bully myself because I can't play the D chord easily." (You would substitute your unique thoughts and feelings.)
To use another example, consider social anxiety, which I used to experience. I used to have all sorts of worries and negative thoughts about interacting with people, and these interfered in my life. Learning to accept my anxiety and worry was helpful because I looked at my thoughts in a new way. When I recognized and acknowledged my thoughts and accepted that I was having them, I could start living my life fully even though the anxiety was still there. I accepted that I would have self-doubt and other negative thoughts and worries, but that those things weren't necessarily true and didn't have the power to keep me from doing things with others. Then, taking action (doing things with others) and accepting that I would still have anxiety let me see that I could interact with people without disasters happening. Acceptance is one mindset that frees you to live your life even though anxiety is present. You accept that you can't play the D chord yet and that you feel anxious about it so you have the courage to keep practicing anyway.
You can probably tell from these examples that acceptance doesn't exist by itself, and it certainly isn't the only thing that helps us move past anxiety. It is just one of many tools and perspectives/attitudes that lets us break free from anxiety's grasp. It allows us to stop struggling and start living. It's the process of continuing to practice that ultimately lets us play that D chord and move onto new chords and challenges.

Hello Clare,
I appreciate your wise insights. For many reasons, positivity is healing and drastically improves quality of life. Acceptance (of self, others, situations, etc.) is part of that and is helpful in moving forward.

Thanks, Tim!

OK, new plan: just try to distract. (If you are obsessng it is hard to see with a beginner's mind. Nevermind that right now.) Just distract!

Yes, I see, you are prejudging the day and are very afraid of the anxiety coming. It is the fear of it ocming that creates it. If you weren't afraid, it wouldn't come. Does that make sense?

You can ask me specifically what you want clarification on. <3