We generally suffer from anxiety because we lack faith in ourselves.
The English word faith is derived from the Latin word “fides” which means “trust” or “confidence.” And “faith” as it occurs in the New Testament of the King James Bible is a translation of the Greek word for “expectation.”
When we lack faith in ourselves, we lack self-confidence. We do not trust ourselves to do what we need to. We do not expect effective behavior from ourselves, and so we do not expect good results. Quite understandably, that generates anxiety.
To build faith in ourselves, we must become faithful.
Faithfulness in this sense means fidelity: constant, reliable adherence to something.
More specifically, we must be faithful to trustworthy codes of conduct. For me, that includes Christian ethics, libertarian principles of justice, and the “Getting Things Done” (GTD) productivity methodology.
The more we “keep the faith” to such trustworthy systems, the more we ourselves become trustworthy, and the more we grow to trust ourselves. As our self-efficacy rises, our anxiety recedes.
Faith in the sense of fidelity builds faith in the sense of confidence.