How do you address any anxiety or stress you encounter in your life? A practice that has helped me in this regard for decades starts with the realization that I have a choice as to how to react. I follow that up with not reacting. If I can just allow the emotion to float right by and not wrestle with it I have learned it will do just that - float right by. It’s like how I was taught to react to a wasp. Leave it alone and it will move on. I am by no means a master at this, but I do try and it is effective for me.
I now have had enough experience on this site to know that some will want to disparage and ridicule my above method. Go ahead if you must. But it’s not really the purpose of the post. We all have our own ways and methods for traversing the landscape of our lives. And I think we can all possibly learn best practices from one another.
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Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.Just came across this quotation. My son (age 43) asked what it meant and what follows is my explanation. Perhaps you might try to explain it too.
Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom
Soren Kierkegaard
in THE WEEK or i-newspaper. Read in Dentist.
Matt
You actually have the freedom to do lots of things by yourself but you do not yet believe it. OK you have this freedom and are continually asking for help, but people do not know exactly what is going on in your mind and they often fail to help you. This frustrating attempts & mismatch is going on constantly in your mind and appears as circling or dizziness. If you just try something adventurous all by your self , yes you will possibly fail but then TRY to say exactly what small piece of knowledge you require and you will get you further on. You will probably have to repeat that process lots of times before things run smoothly and your REAL ability comes out.
Mcflewster
Level 8
Oct 8, 2019
0
I think that your method might work very well for mentally healthy people... but for people with mental illnesses such as PTSD (where you can be triggered into an emotional response you cannot control with positive thoughts) anxiety or depression such an approach will be difficult or not even work.... this is meant to be informative to you and not disparaging... nice that you have found a method that works for you though! 
demifeministgal
Level 8
Oct 7, 2019
1
I 100% agree.
Im.glad you posted this, as I have a harder time dealing with stress and anxiety than I used to. As a christian, I was pretty good at letting shit go, cause I thought I had a space daddy watching out for me and I didnt need to worry as much. So, now that I'm not quite as ignorant, I need a new, healthy way to manage my stress. Currently, I overeat or withdraw myself...neither is a sustainable solution. I loved reading through all these comments, super helpful
Nakedterror
Level 6
Oct 4, 2019
2
Your method is an excellent way of managing immediate challenges. For long-term managment I practice dissonance resolution.
skado
Level 9
Oct 4, 2019
0
Can you elaborate? I am interested.
@Truthseeker1968
A lot, not all of course, but a lot of what contributes to life’s stresses has its roots in cognitive dissonance, of the sort described by Leon Festinger. For our purposes here it can be described as the discomfort generated by being exposed to information that is not harmonious with our worldview.
Festinger goes into detail about the various ways to resolve that conflict (denial of the new information, etc.) but the most beneficial way is to discover the truth about the matter, and adjust the worldview to match the truth, instead of the other way around. For this, the scientific method, and a scientific attitude, are indispensable.
The problem is, that much of our worldview is formed before we have developed the skill of abstract thinking, so a lot of our worldview is not readily accessible by the conscious mind.
So dissonance resolution is a long-term practice which consists of learning to identify the symptoms of dissonance, digging in the unconscious for the offending assumption, and consciously replacing it with information that accords with objective reality.
It’s slow and can bring the practitioner into contact with devastatingly painful material, but the cumulative effect over time can be deeply liberating.
@skado That was close to my guess. While I am familiar with cognitive dissonance, cognitive resolution was new to me. Your explanation is very well articulated and makes perfect sense to me. I can certainly see where that would be quite liberating. Thanks for taking the time to lay that out.
My family is so rife with anxiety. My current direction is to try out for myself "Mindfulness" having previously taken Stress management and Hypnotherapy courses and a brief spell as a commercial therapist. More info on application. Something has GOT TO work!
Mcflewster
Level 8
Oct 4, 2019
0
Good luck my friend. I do hope you find something that works for you.
Discussions like this are so much more fruitful and a god damned prayer meeting.
Truthseeker1968
Level 6
Oct 4, 2019
1
Anxiety is my #1 problem. My worst response is to react to protect myself - that always goes badly. My best response is to hang on and endure it through the emotional free-fall. My latest discovery is that sometimes, if I can endure it and do nothing, sometimes it turns out well. I guess sometimes nature is benevolent.
BitFlipper
Level 8
Oct 4, 2019
1
Another practice I invoke is to be like water. Be supple. Bend with the terrain. It when I harden up like a board that things break and get damaged. Good luck to you friend. .
@Truthseeker1968 that's a good visualization. I sometimes visualize a tree in a storm.
@BitFlipper Yes. Where you are securely grounded regardless the elements. In my Christian days I remember thinking about the door stop - those that are like a spring with the white rubber top - and how I could bend it any way I wanted yet it always stayed anchored to the baseboard. I used it as a metaphor for my feet being grounded in the Word. But now its more like grounded in reality.
I get all stressed, over-share with friends, then a solution pops into my head & I act on it.
AnneWimsey
Level 9
Oct 4, 2019
1
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