BREAAAAAATHE.
Buzzfeed nailed it with “21 GIFs That Will Calm You The F*ck Down”
Life is a tapestry of stress. From split ends to terminal illnesses, we live stressed out lives. I am reminded of a formula that has been helpful to me:
Pain + Resistance = Suffering
Stressors are everywhere. It’s what we give our focus to, what we allow to consume our energy, that impacts our mood and our overall experience of our lives. Said otherwise, what we pay attention to DEFINES our experience of our lives.
The solution is comically simple, objectively accessible to everyone, and yet can feel our of reach. Ready? Focus on the good and breath. Yep… it won’t change your environmental reality, it would heal your spit ends or cure your disease, but it will allow you to feel at peace. The more you do it, the longer that good feeling lasts. The neuro-biologists call it “re-wiring the brain.”
In fact, there are lots of obstacles to lowering anxiety, as understood by various schools of thought. Some conceptualize the challenges from an evolutionary perspective (the Negativity Bias saves us from being the tiger’s lunch) or trauma perspective (the nervous system trapped in hypervigilance) etc. Understanding the obstacles is the work of therapy. In the end, we really need to whatever it takes to Calm The F*ck Down and enjoy the journey.