Moderate amounts of anxiety can be extremely adaptive.  It galvanizes us to prepare for the future and helps keep us safe in the present.  Anxiety serves as the fuel that boosts our capacity to perform under pressure.  Acute or longer lasting anxiety, however, has the opposite effect; it prevents us from taking important and appropriate risks or engaging in new, potentially beneficial behaviors.  We can feel engulfed by fear and lose touch with the parts of ourselves that are courageous, capable, and ready for change.  Therapy is beneficial for those feeling anxious because it provides tools to decrease the intensity and frequency of anxiety, thereby making it easier to use our inner resources to moderate it.