Anxiety

Johann Hari’s book “Stolen Focus” is a must-read for parents, educators and anyone else who cares about the future. Our ability to be present is slipping away and it may not be what you’d expect.

When our daily life is inundated with run-of-the-mill stress, little things can ignite us. A small burn while cooking dinner can become a stick of emotional dynamite. This in turn, can spark flare-ups of chronic pain, autoimmune or digestive disorders. During times of stress, it’s critical we find a balance of work and play.

In the absence of good or unchallenged information, we will always make up stories to help us know what to do next. The brain rewards you with feeling good regardless to the truth or accuracy of the story. When you own your story of struggle, you get to write the ending. But when you deny a story, it owns you.

While it’s hard to fathom pain, despair and trauma as blessings, there are gifts to be gleaned from having experienced them. For instance, some of the early lessons of the pandemic were an appreciation for a slower pace of life and spending more time in nature.

We cannot experience the full flavor of our embodied life without dipping into the depths of anger, sorrow, joy, fear, contentment, and all the other subtle and complex ranges of emotions that lie on the spectrum of life.

Stress is your body’s reaction to a trigger. It’s generally a short-term experience that can be either positive or negative. It can be positive, such as when you pull off a deadline. But when stress results in insomnia, poor concentration, and impaired ability, it’s negatively impacting your quality of life.

The more I practice, the more I realize yoga is quite possible the best therapy there is. Why? Because yoga works at both the subtle and the gross level, allowing the body and mind to soften. Additionally, yoga quiets the daily chatter of the mind.

The place where the conscious and unconscious meet has no definable boundaries. Needless to say, we humans do not like uncertainty. So we suppress it and override it. But it doesn’t go away because it’s out of sight. This “energy” shows up as troubling behaviors and self-proscribed “treatment plans.”

When choosing a medication, you should not only consider the immediate effect of it on anxiety, but also whether the medication has the ability to change the brain in ways that will help it become resistant to anxiety.

Although bodily sensations of anxiety can sometimes seem overwhelming and heighten anxiety, body mindfulness is another key component in treating panic disorder. Practicing deep breathing and relaxation techniques at home regularly can help you utilize these tools more effectively when panic strikes in public.