cheryl
Administrator
Staff member
One way to calm an anxious mind: Notice when you’re doing OK - TED
To keep our ancestors alive, our brains evolved an ongoing internal trickle of unease. It’s the little whisper of worry that keeps you scanning your inner and outer worlds for signs of trouble.
This background of unsettledness and watchfulness is so automatic to most people that we can forget it’s there.
See if you can tune in to a tension, guarding or bracing in your body. It could also be a vigilance about your environment or other people. Or a block against completely relaxing, letting your guard down or letting go.
While the brain’s default setting of apprehensiveness is a great way to keep a monkey aware of predators, it’s a crummy way for humans to live.
It wears down our well-being, feeds anxiety and depression and makes us turn away from the things that matter to us. And it’s based on a lie.
To keep our ancestors alive, our brains evolved an ongoing internal trickle of unease. It’s the little whisper of worry that keeps you scanning your inner and outer worlds for signs of trouble.
This background of unsettledness and watchfulness is so automatic to most people that we can forget it’s there.
See if you can tune in to a tension, guarding or bracing in your body. It could also be a vigilance about your environment or other people. Or a block against completely relaxing, letting your guard down or letting go.
While the brain’s default setting of apprehensiveness is a great way to keep a monkey aware of predators, it’s a crummy way for humans to live.
It wears down our well-being, feeds anxiety and depression and makes us turn away from the things that matter to us. And it’s based on a lie.