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What happens when anxiety has been part of your life for so long that you don’t realize how much it is shaping the way you see yourself? In this episode, I sit down with psychotherapist, author, and expressive arts educator Elke Scholz to talk about anxiety, the stories we tell ourselves, and the tools that can help us understand what is happening beneath the surface instead of simply judging ourselves for it. Elke brings both professional insight and personal experience to a conversation about curiosity, creativity, self-compassion, and learning how to become a safer place for yourself. From being your own worst enemy to becoming your own best friend, this is a Lost & Found conversation about what can happen when we stop fighting ourselves long enough to listen.
🎙 Best Friend
Season 24: Lost & Found | Guest: Elke Scholz
What if the person you spend the most time with is also the person you are hardest on?
For Elke Scholz, anxiety wasn't always something she could easily identify or explain. It could show up as exhaustion, fear, self-criticism, overthinking, or simply the feeling that something wasn't right.
And somewhere along the way came a painful description: your own worst enemy.
But what happens when that relationship begins to change?
Season 24, Lost & Found, explores what happens when people lose something deeper than possessions—identity, purpose, hope, direction, faith, or the life they thought they would have—and what they discover as they find a new way forward.
In this conversation, Elke and I explore anxiety, the way we speak to ourselves, the importance of curiosity, and what it might mean to stop constantly fighting the person in the mirror.
What would it look like to become your own best friend instead?
🧭 GUEST INTRODUCTION
Elke Scholz is a registered psychotherapist, author, expressive arts consultant and educator, and EMDR therapist whose work centers around anxiety, resilience, creativity, and emotional well-being.
Her professional experience gives her tools for helping others understand what is happening beneath the surface, but this conversation goes beyond credentials. Elke also shares from her own experiences and what she has learned about the relationship we build with ourselves.
Because knowing how to care for other people doesn't automatically mean we know how to extend that same care inward.
🧭 EPISODE DETAILS
🧠 Recognizing Anxiety
Anxiety doesn't always introduce itself clearly. Elke talks about becoming aware of what is happening emotionally and physically instead of simply assuming something is wrong with us.
🗣️ The Voice We Live With
We spend every day listening to our own internal dialogue. The question becomes whether that voice sounds like someone who is for us or someone constantly working against us.
🔎 Choosing Curiosity
Instead of immediately judging a feeling, reaction, or difficult moment, Elke encourages curiosity. What is happening? Where is this coming from? What might I need right now?
❤️ Offering Yourself Compassion
We often give patience and grace to people we love while withholding those same things from ourselves. Becoming your own best friend doesn't mean avoiding responsibility. It means learning to respond to yourself with honesty without cruelty.
🎨 Finding Tools That Help
Elke shares how creativity, expressive arts, awareness, and practical tools can help us process what we're carrying rather than simply trying to push it away.
👟 From Worst Enemy to Best Friend
Perhaps getting found isn't always about discovering someone new. Sometimes it's about changing the relationship with the person who has been walking with you the entire time.
🧭 MEMORABLE TAKEAWAY
There is a difference between challenging yourself and constantly attacking yourself.
A best friend doesn't tell you that everything you do is perfect. A best friend can tell you the truth, challenge you, encourage you, sit with you when things hurt, and still refuse to abandon you.
Maybe we deserve to learn how to do some of that for ourselves.
The person you've been fighting might also be the person you need to learn how to stand beside.
🧭 CONNECT WITH ELKE SCHOLZ
🌐 Visit Elke Scholz | 📚 Explore Elke's Books | 🧠 Anxiety Warrior Project | ▶️ YouTube
🧭 LISTEN & FOLLOW OTHER PEOPLE'S SHOES
👟 Websie | 📘 Facebook | 📸 Instagram | 𝕏 X | 🎬 TikTok
🧭 LEAVE US A REVIEW
If this conversation gave you a different perspective, we'd love to hear from you. Your review helps more people discover Other People's Shoes and the stories being shared here each week.
Thank you for walking in Other People's Shoes. 👟🩵
Maybe becoming found begins when you stop treating yourself like the enemy and start learning how to be your own best friend.