“I’ve lived through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened.”
-Mark Twain
In capitalism, responding in a wrong way to an email can start a chain of events that lead to you being let go, which leads to almost immediate threats to your bodily existence from lack of shelter and food. So in a way, it’s understandable to feel this level of anxiety about this situation.
responding in a wrong way to an email
It’d have to be pretty wrong to trigger that chain of events. It’s definitely possible but being that wrong would probably get the sender into trouble in other economic systems as well.
This resonates with me … sadly
I hate to be the guy to say this on an internet forum. But mindfulness really does help. There are thousands of resources out there and finding one that is the perfect fit can be tricky. Most of them are to ‘new wave’ for me, but some are great and can really help with this.
Don’t hate to be that guy. Because you’re being really helpful. Also, you’re right. Mindfulness is really helpful to figure out stuff like this. But same, I don’t know much about it either and I’ve tried it a couple of times and those 10 mins are not easy 😂
The really cool thing is - it doesn’t need to be easy, you don’t have to be ‘good’ at it in order to work. I highly recommend the ‘mindfulness for beginners’ course by Jeff Warren on the app Calm (30 times 10-12 minutes) If you prefer reading, he co-authored the book ‘meditation for fidgety skeptics’ which is also down to earth and humorous.  By the way, I’m in no way affiliated to him in any way, was just relieved to find someone with his style to ease me into it.
Thanks, appreciate the concern and advice. But I’m good.
In terms of such apps, I can highly recommend downdog if you’re on iOS. They cover yoga, mindfulness and other areas.
For Android I recommend Calm. Or if you don’t want to spend money on an app like this then Insight Timer is the way to go.
However if you’re actually aiming to waking up, then the app for you is just that, Waking Up. Not for the faint hearted. Do not start if you’re not in it for honest, real awakening. It is very disturbing if you’re not prepared. ❤️
Can you elaborate how it helps? My limited understanding is that it helps curb the mental anxiety even if your body is simultaneously full of stress hormones.
Mindfulness is only actively choosing what you’re paying attention to. Mindfulness meditation is the exercise of picking something to pay attention to, and then continually bringing your attention back to it whenever you find your mind had wandered. Practicing this 10 minutes per day strengthens your ability to recognize and choose where your attention goes.
Anxiety at a cognitive level is caused by your mind thinking about things in the past or the future that are not serving you well. Strengthening your mindfulness skills allows you to recognize when your mind has wandered into that territory and decide to let it go and give your attention to something else.
Unfortunately our modern society is designed in a way that encouraged shorter attention spans and less control over our attention
I’m no expert myself, but what it definitely can do is help you recognize the different symptoms that you can feel in your body that your brain recognizes as anxiety, that way you can kind of break the cycle of the body influencing the mind and vice versa. Then there is non-identification, which means that you kind of look at your anxious feelings, as if you are a spectator, not identifying with them. This way you realize you are not your feelings, but you have your feelings and can snap out of them way quicker and not get caught in a loop. It sounds kind of trivial when talking about it, but experiencing it can be quite profound. 
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This sounds like it was written by a dog.
“This is London, Jen. It’s not someone with cake. Unless that cake is made of dog poo and knives!”
Stoicism, meditation, mindfulness, yoga, reading, whatever other thing that makes your inner voices stop (flow/focus state)
I wonder if there’s a community for sharing tips for these things yet
cool although I don’t like stoicism cause it sounds to me like dissociation, never actually learn from the bad experience
You need to recalibrate your flight or fight response. Purposefully put yourself in a life threatening situation, it will make you wish you were answering emails instead
I repeatably put myself in dangerous, potentially life-threatening situations. I never wish I was answering emails instead.
Sweet sweet escitalopram my beloved
Holy fraggle rock the anxiety I get from the most non live human interactions is astounding.
Deep breaths
By living the experience, without contrasting or refusing what you feel and then surviving it. It gets time but the system can be rewired.
