Sarah Taylor says winning the World Cup has helped change her outlook on life and cricket.

Playing a part in the highest profile women’s cricket match this country has ever seen has helped her enjoy positive memories rather than dwell on negatives.

But the England star from Brighton has enjoyed another landmark moment up in the capital of late.

And it was more daunting than going out to bat in front of a full-house at Lord’s.

Taylor, pictured below, the Sussex wicketkeeper and batsman, took a break from the game after revealing she suffered from anxiety.

She says it was the best decision she has ever made.

That special day against India last summer was part of the pay-off after her return to action.

And another came this month – with a visit to the Natural History Museum in London.

The Argus:

It was somewhere she had always wanted to go and she told Twitter followers she felt “prouder than ever” at conquering her own hurdles to do it.

Now, speaking to The Argus during pre-season training with Sussex at the Aldridge Cricket Academy in Falmer, she underlined just what that winter outing meant.

She said: “For me, cricket is the fun bit. The hard thing in my life is social anxieties.

“Massive groups of people, small rooms and all those targets you have got to take on – cars, coaches, the tube. They were massive for me.

“Even going for a long walk I was scared because I was too far away from my safe place, which might be a car, a home or a person and all of that stuff which probably some people don’t understand, “It is really tough to go through and it is quite debilitating when normal things can feel so hard.

“I felt like I had gone from this normal person to this person who was hiding away.

“That was when I decided to go and take a break.

“To walk for half an hour away from my safe space and go into the museum for however long and then walk back half an hour, for somebody who suffers from social anxiety, that is one of the biggest things to go through.

“I had my partner with me so you feel safe but it’s all about you at that time.

“I think the fear is you don’t want to have a panic attack. The fear of having one then causes one.

In over 2yrs I've been unable to walk more than 5mins away from a place that feels safe. But today I took off in an unknown direction, on an unknown journey for over an hour. It led me to the @natural_history_museum. A place I have dreamed of visiting and I am prouder than ever. pic.twitter.com/fh5nJen9XN

— Sarah Taylor (@Sarah_Taylor30) February 7, 2018

“It is getting through little things like that. I tweeted about it to show people it is okay.

“I think the more people who speak about it the better, to kind of make it a norm.

“I don’t think mental health should have any stigma because it is completely normal.

“The amount of times I’ve said this and the amount of people who have gone, ‘I’ve suffered from that’.

“But, look, I’m in a better place now where I can do most things.”

Like walking out to bat at Lord’s.

“Absolutely no problem. Walking down the Lord’s pavilion, the longest walk in cricket.

“Walking out to bat in a World Cup final – absolutely fine. You know that’s your norm.”

England will be at Hove this summer.

They face South Africa in a one-dayer at the 1st Central County Ground on Tuesday, June 12 After a drawn Ashes series Down Under, they are looking to build on a World Cup success which captivated the nation.

Even now, it appears Taylor does not quite realise what a big deal that was.

She did not know, for example, that Sussex men’s T20 versus Kent that afternoon was delayed by rain just as the women’s final was reaching its finale.

Pockets of spectators, players and the media were following every ball on televisions and mobile devices around the ground.

You could hear the cheers at Hove as Indian wickets started to tumble.

But she knows what it did for her.

“For me personally it is just remembering those good moments “I tend to reflect on bad times, I don’t reflect on good times enough.

“But, actually, I can look back at that and say, ‘That was a genuinely amazing day’.

“It wasn’t just for us, it was for everyone who had worked so hard for four years to get England cricket to where we wanted it to be.

“We had people coming to watch every game, not just when it was an England game.

“The fact we achieved that was just incredible.”