The Box: An Invitation to Freedom from Anxiety
About this ebook
There is a moment when you realize your life is no longer your own. You made it picture perfect. You thought it would make you happy and whole. You thought you could seal the walls tight and feel safe. But the panic doesn’t pass, and the anxiety seeps in through every crack. Your pain uses perfection to hide the unraveling. But deep inside, you still hear the whisper of a voice that’s always been there, calling to you, promising that you were meant for more.
In The Box, Wendy Tamis Robbins offers a window into the mental illness of an all-star athlete, Ivy League-graduate, and successful attorney. At just 6 years old, Wendy’s first panic attack sparked a 40-year struggle with a variety of anxiety disorders: generalized, social and health, eating disorders, phobias, intrusive and suicidal thoughts, and dissociation. Avoiding anything that could trigger her symptoms, she retreats into a box to contain and hide her condition. After years of living in the prison she originally constructed as her safe place, Wendy is no longer willing to limit her life to accommodate her disorders.
Raw and powerful, vulnerable and intimate, The Box is both a triumphant memoir and an irresistible invitation. It portrays a courageous journey to find the source of a debilitating disorder in order to find the power to overcome it. Wendy’s experience reminds us of the redemptive power of forgiveness and the healing power of love, not just for others, but for ourselves. It is a story of courage that reframes mental illness sufferers as survivors—a powerful portrait of a woman who refused to remain caged in a box of her making. Now, the invitation is yours… if you are willing to accept it.
About the author
Wendy Tamis Robbins is an attorney, author, anxiety coach and self-proclaimed professional “panic-attacker.” After living with a variety of anxiety and panic disorders for almost 40 years, she is now anxiety-free. Not because she is completely free of anxiety, but because it no longer controls her. She has traded living in resistance for building resilience. Her fears now fuel a life not only beyond anxiety, but beyond her dreams. On her path to recovery she discovered a restorative, inner peace and reclaimed her authentic power. She is passionate about helping others who are hiding their fear and accommodating their anxiety behind perfectionism and over-achievement to find the same freedom.
When Wendy hit rock bottom, it was hearing other people’s stories that saved her life. Now she shares her own to be an example of what’s possible.
Her unique coaching draws from her personal experience while finding common and relatable ground. Her balanced approach utilizes both practical thought and holistic body/mind work, while keeping a sharp focus on the goal — imagining your most beautiful life beyond anxiety, believing it can be true, deciding you are worthy of it and ultimately manifesting it.
Despite her anxiety, Wendy earned a scholarship and worked her way through Dartmouth College, where she competed on the varsity track and field team, and law school. She’s worked as a tax and corporate finance attorney for over 20 years creating and preserving affordable housing and providing sources of financing to under-served communities. She and her husband, David, live on the North Shore of Massachusetts with his two teen-age children.
