How to Vote Mindfully

Politically charged times can be exciting for many of us.

When participating in political conversations and thinking about choosing the next president, the energy can be quite tangible. Many greet this time with great enthusiasm and vigor. However, if you’re like me, when thinking about the gravity of exercising our right as set forth by the 17th Amendment, you mostly feel anxious, restless, and lost in a sea of political media overload.

As we gear up for another election, we might feel that it is our duty to absorb as many news articles as possible. In our need to define and defend our beliefs as truth, and to feed our need to be shocked and horrified by other people’s views, some of us stay up late into the evenings absorbing information despite our stressed and sleep deprived states. We may know people who collect and respond to political memes and reply to comments on public Facebook posts, getting involved in online arguments with people they’ve never met before.

In politically charged times, we might say and do things that we otherwise wouldn’t have under different situations.

In our never-ending quest for truth, and in our need to shut down others with differing opinions, some of us may willingly create wedges and divisions, and incite arguments with our closest friends and family members. All of these actions and quick reactions accumulate in our minds and bodies. Over time, we may develop mental and physical ailments as a result of our politically-incited behavior.

In a recent survey of 800 people nationwide, many reported significant negative mental and physiological consequences of absorbing too much political media, especially by outlets that present false information or views different from their own. 25% of people reported that politics has led them to “hate” some people, and to “think seriously about moving away from their community.” And, about 15% reported remorse over things said in political conversations or regret about posting political content online.

It’s very difficult to be politically aware and also to be mindful of the damage the search for awareness may be causing. This brings up a question:

How can we define our political viewpoints and cast our votes mindfully while protecting our health in the process?

This is a challenging and nearly impossible feat. The best we can do is conduct ample research, know our options, and stay true to ourselves. If we adequately prepare for the task, and set up boundaries to ward off biased and false information, and pause before reacting to online posts, we will be able to greatly reduce our stress levels and reactive behaviors.

“Choose your leaders with wisdom and forethought” - Octavia Butler

Voting can be an open-hearted expression of what we care about. However, in this modern era of ample unreliable sources, how can we defend what we care about if we can’t trust the sources we have access to?

Know that your social feeds are biased, and that most popular news sources are funded by organizations and individuals who want you to think like them. Know that when you type something in an internet search, your query will be auto-completed in a specific way depending on where you are located in the country. Search engines also take into consideration our shopping habits, our political affiliation, and our browsing history (creepy!).

Above all, we need to keep in mind that popular media is always trying to sway our opinions, so it’s best to seek information from several different trustworthy sources.

But what sources can be trusted?

Click on the image to get to Google Advanced Search

When I was teaching research skills to high school students, I answered this question quite a bit. I recommended that when students want to find information that is reliable, reputable, and mostly free from scandal, they use Google Advanced Search, and limit their results to domains such as .edu, .org, or .gov. (But keep in mind, Wikipedia is a .org, and not a reliable source of info since users can edit it.) Surround your search criteria with quotations to limit your results, and then browse from there.

In choosing candidates mindfully, it’s a great idea to refer to government-issued information booklets, as they present facts clearly, without bringing up moral and ethical implications of candidates’ past actions. We can then make an informed choice.

Know that our friends and family will have differing opinions. Instead of jumping straight into defending your position, we can ask them to help us understand: “Help me understand why you support so-and-so.” Voting mindfully involves understanding other opinions. Knowing the reasons behind why your aunt supports an opposing candidate may help you both find a point of connection. Perhaps you’ll realize that you both value safety and security, but have differing ideas on how to meet those needs.

Voting is a private choice, but who we vote for has public consequences. Nelson Mandela famously said that it is in our hands “to create a better world for all who live in it.” Let’s heed his advice, and think about all of those who will be affected positively by our vote. Let’s get rid of our inherent bias towards negative thoughts and election-based apocalyptic thinking. Let’s instead look for the good, which can alleviate stress, ground us in reality, and help us see that no matter what happens, we will persevere.

“Every election is determined by those who show up.” - Larry Sabato

“Showing up” to vote means something a little different this year, as many of us will be able to vote from home due to the ongoing pandemic. Take your ballot to a quiet spot in your house. Breathe, and bring awareness to the task. You’ve done your research, you already know what issues you stand behind. Then, make your choice. Show up for 2020, and vote with the future in mind.

Things You Probably Should Know about the Power of Music

An article about music might seem a bit off-topic for a blog based on slowing down and focusing on the important things in life. However, for me, music is a part of the important things in life!

All of our histories are highlighted by music in some way. Even if you don’t listen to music, and never have, I’m guessing you’ve been exposed to music via advertising, the radio, while browsing the aisles of your local shopping outlets, while dining at a restaurant, and countless other venues.

My history has been fairly rich with the presence of music. As a child, I grew up listening to my dad play guitar and piano, and compose his own music as well. My brothers and I all learned to play the piano. I was a member of a few choirs, and I chose to be in musicals for extra-curricular activities. I also took ballet lessons for a number of years - we were taught to allow the music to move through us, in order to transport our grace and fluidity to the next level.

As I grew older, and reached high school age, my friends and I devoured music on the radio, made mix-tapes, then CD mixes, and drove from the suburbs to downtown Chicago to see our favorite bands play in crowded, smokey venues. In my moody teenage bedroom, I would immerse myself in musical baths of my choice, depending on what mood I wanted to elicit. Its power over me was immense.

I was never without music. I had a Walkman, then a Discman, then an iPod, and now I can get music anytime on my smartphone. Music has always ornamented my life, highlighting certain moments, making some more memorable than others. Music, to me, is almost synonymous with memory. In fact, to process music, the brain uses the same processing technique as emotion and memory. 

Trying to remember how to play piano, Dad’s house, 2016

I listen to music less often now, but when I do, I still feel its effects, perhaps just as potently as I did when I was young. 

We humans have always sought music and art to express ourselves. By playing music, we celebrate life, we honor the future, and we mourn what has been lost. Music invokes memories from the past, transports us to different times and places, and makes us feel incredible joy. According to neurologist Oliver Sacks, “Music imprints itself on the brain deeper than any other human experience.”

Music is so influential that it has purportedly brought up birth weights in premature infants, elicited positive effects on plant growth, and aided in the recovery of patients suffering from brain damages. Music has also been documented in boosting performance in sports, improving literacy scores, and helping patients recover from heart attacks. 

Music is clearly exceptionally powerful. 

However, in addition to boosting our mental and physical health on many levels, music can also bring about negative outcomes, such as profound sadness, over-stimulation, hearing loss, memory triggering, emotional flooding, and distress. For example, studies have shown that music can create false memories, confusion, and anxiety in dementia patients who are hoping to recall their lost selves. Music’s adverse effects can multiply and snowball into potentially serious psychological and physical distress, depending on preexisting conditions.

Warped Tour, 1999

As a teenager and through my early 20s, I often used music as a way to escape instead of face reality. Music had a way of altering my mindset, causing me to view both the world and my place in it much differently. The music I chose to listen to, coupled with the circumstances surrounding my consumption of the music, may have had a role in some of the choices I made at the time.

Music has a way of putting us under a spell and forcing us to move against our wills. This can be clearly seen in the very young and also very old. Studies on older infants and toddlers show that when little kiddos hear music, they start to wiggle around and “dance,” as though moved by an unseen force. This also happens to the elderly, as seen in dementia patients, showing that music can make people say or do things that have no relation to reality.

Advertisers have been using music’s powerful effects to their advantage for decades. The familiarity of a song can have powerful sway over consumer behavior. Marketing and advertising firms (and other institutions that use music to rouse an audience) are very successful in eliciting a desired emotional response, and they are very aware of the type of music that might create it. For example, they know that certain major or minor key tunes can manipulate emotion:

“Different melodies, chords, or key changes in songs can elicit responses. For example, strings playing short and sharp notes in a major key were found to elicit feelings of happiness and excitement in 87% of respondents. Meanwhile, a shift from major to minor keys provoked a sense of sadness or melancholy in 83%, and 90% found acoustic guitar sounds to be caring, calm and sophisticated.”

From “Science of Sound: How music makes advertising more memorable”

Part of living mindfully is being a mindful about what we expose ourselves to. In addition to being aware of the effects of “too much” in terms of our digital lives, our possessions, our schedules, and our mental loads, we should also be aware of music’s powerful effects.

Music can wield incredible power over our minds, bodies, and emotions. To quote Stan Lee from Spider Man: “With great power comes great responsibility.” This power can do wonderful, beautiful things. Music has the wonderful ability of accentuating and enlivening our days, providing richness to our earthly experience, and ornamenting our realities, but we need to be aware that music’s power does not always work in our favor, and can actually bring about negative effects.

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I’m not a music scientist, nor am I a licensed psychologist, so the opinions above are my own, highlighted by research I’ve done. I personally find the effects of music to be very fascinating. What about you? What is your personal history with music? I’d love to hear what you think about any of this, or if you can add to the discussion. Please leave a comment below or email me at ali.everthrive@gmail.com

My Holistic Escape From Chronic Pain

Anklylosing Spondylitis (AS) is a type of arthritis causing inflammation around the spine, attacking the bones and joints, and can affect the arms and legs as well. AS also causes inflammation in the skin, intestines, and eyes. Symptoms of AS include lower back pain, overall body stiffness, sciatica, and joint pain. Over time, the spine can fuse together, and many sufferers develop a hunched-over appearance.

There is no cure.

I was diagnosed with AS in 2016. Since it’s so difficult to diagnose, I had to suffer with its symptoms since 2011.

Why might I be writing about health for a website focused on mindful, simple living? Where does my experience with AS fit in with Everthrive?

Well, here’s the short answer. Part of living mindfully is choosing what I expose myself to. I’ve found that by being mindful about diet, stress management, simple living, and moderate exercise, my AS has gone into remission.

But I didn’t figure this out right away. I had to experience years of juggling pain medications, steroids, and injecting harsh chemicals into my upper thigh. I dealt with bouts of immobility. There were times where my legs gave out from under me. Sometimes I just gave up midway down the stairs and would cry. There was hopelessness, anger, depression, shingles outbreaks and panic attacks.

If you’d like to continue reading, here is my AS story.

A selfie from Arlington High School, where I taught 10th, 11th, and 12th grade English and Literature.

In 2011, I was teaching high school English in Arlington, Massachusetts. After school, I helped coach our cross country team, and I ran with the team daily. I was 28, and I loved my life and my job.

It was about this time when I started experiencing shooting pains down my legs. Sometimes the pain would be in the right leg. Other times the left leg. It came and went. I started doing more stretches pre and post run, but my efforts were fruitless. I gave in and saw a doctor, who reprimanded me for trying to keep up with 14-year-old runners. She gave me some pain killers, and I went on my way.

Limping became normal for me. I became skilled at hiding it. Sometimes the pain would subside for weeks, other times it was a daily issue. I learned to live with it.

Then, on a spring break trip to New York City, my left eye became very red and watery, and very sensitive to the light. I assumed I had scratched it while taking my contacts out, or perhaps it was seasonal allergies. I purchased Visine, allergy drops, and saline drops, and applied them every hour or so. The sights of NYC were blurry and distorted. I had to wear sunglasses even indoors. When I returned, I promptly went to an ophthalmologist who diagnosed me with iritis (inflammation of the iris). She gave me milky-colored steroid drops to use every 2 hours, and suggested I get a blood test also, “to be safe.” I disregarded this last bit of advice, and went on with my life. My eye healed, and I was only hobbling sometimes. 

Then, in 2013, after moving back to the Chicago area, I got the eye infection again. I knew exactly what to do; I got the drops, and again the doctor suggested a blood test “to rule out lupus, among other autoimmune diseases.” I disregarded this advice for a second time. I was healthy. I ate a balanced diet. I did Pilates twice a week and walked my dog to and from the beach every day. I went hiking and backpacking occasionally. I was on my feet all day teaching. I consistently ran 3-5 miles at a time. I felt like I was in the best shape of my life, besides my continuous hobbling, intermittent sciatica, and lower back pain.

Fast forward to 2015, and I got iritis again.

And, in April 2016 the pain in my legs got much worse. I could barely walk. I would take a step and then my leg would buckle underneath me. I couldn’t sit for very long because the pain in my lower back was so severe, and would radiate down one leg or the other, depending on the day.

The pain was infuriating and random. Every morning I woke up paralyzed with stiffness. I would roll out of bed like a feeble 90-year-old woman and shuffle to the bathroom. I couldn’t lift my legs to put on underwear or jeans. I couldn’t bend over to put on my shoes. I had to swivel my body in and out of the car. I quit Pilates. There was a short period of time where I was completely immobile. Laying down was painful, but walking was much more painful.

At my lowest point, I was worried I wouldn’t be able to walk down the isle to marry my husband on June 11, 2016. How would that look? Would Josh have to carry me?

I did a lot of blaming. I blamed my condition on my activity level. I blamed it on my desk chair. I blamed it on a so-called inflamed disk that an MRI revealed. I blamed it on that one time I slipped on ice and bruised my tailbone. I blamed it on my mattress. But, the pain and immobility and stiffness seemed so much worse than it should be for those things. I had nothing left to blame, so I cried.

I began seeing many doctors, and one of them recommended physical therapy to correct my inflamed disk, so I went every day for 4 weeks. The exercises my PT taught me seemed to help. Slowly I regained mobility, but not without the help painkillers and steroids. 

I was able to walk down the aisle and marry my best friend in the wedding of our dreams, but by the end of the perfect evening, I was having trouble walking. 

Loving my husband. Smiling through the pain.

I thought, enough is enough. Maybe I should see if there something more causing this pain; some invisible condition attacking my body. I went ahead and got the blood work that each and every ophthalmologist had recommended to me.

The results came back. A protein called HLA-B27 was found on my white blood cells. HLA proteins help the body's immune system tell the difference between its own cells and foreign, harmful substances. If you have HLA-B27 on your white blood cells, you might have an autoimmune disease. Another MRI was ordered, and I was sent to a rheumatologist to go over those results.

He showed me an image of my deteriorating pubic bone, and told me very matter-of-factly that I had ankylosing spondylitis, a disease that could never be cured, and I’d be managing it my whole life. 

I drove home 45 minutes oscillating between despair and anger and feeling that my life was over. 

They told me I had to take medicine every day for the rest of my life.

The first pill I was prescribed was meloxicam, a drug that reduces pain, swelling, and stiffness of the joints. It also increases the risk of “severe stomach pain, black tarry stools, vomiting of blood or material that looks like coffee grounds, skin rash, swelling of the face, fingers, feet, or lower legs.” (Mayo Clinic)

Regardless of these side effects, I took this pill for one year, until Josh and I decided to start trying to have a baby.

Upon learning that meloxicam could also lead to spontaneous abortion, I stopped taking it, and I started taking Humera. I was told that it was mostly safe for pregnancy, but could also lead to serious infections and lymphoma, among other cancers. I gingerly agreed to take this, as I felt there was no other choice.

Humera comes through the mail, in a styrofoam cooler, and I had to inject it into my thigh. The first time I tried this, I was at my rheumatologist’s office. After I clicked the mechanism that jolted the cold medication into my bloodstream, I slowly lost touch with my surroundings. The nurse, the chair, and the paintings on the wall gradually pixelated into a white oblivion. I almost passed out. The paramedics were called - they thought I was going into anaphylactic shock, and so did I - but the episode passed, and was reduced to a panic attack.

Red flag heeded. I decided to seek out alternative methods of managing my disease. I began seeing a naturopathic doctor.

The office was more like a spa than a hospital. The air was imbued with essential oils, greenery cascaded from the ceiling, and there was even a waterfall.

After providing evidence and explaining my “situation,” the naturopath persuaded me to take a food sensitivity test, as well as a stool analysis. I basically had to collect my poo and send samples to the lab for 5 consecutive days, which was a bit strange as I was working as a teacher at the time and had to poop in a public bathroom into red-check paper hot dog trays.

The tests were revelatory. I was highly sensitive to eggs, cow dairy products, almonds, quinoa, and hazelnuts. All of these foods increased the inflammatory response in my body significantly. As a constant consumer of these specific foods, I was at a loss. What would I eat?

The naturopath also reminded me of the mind-body connection to illness. Stress is a large factor in setting off inflammatory responses. I would also need to identify and reduce as much stress as possible, and put up more barriers between myself and possible stressors.

Since my visits with the naturopath, I’ve learned so much about food and diet. There are certain foods can help fight inflammation and ease symptoms like joint pain and stiffness, and there are other foods that will most likely lead to joint pain and stiffness. (Every Day Health)

In addition to eliminating almonds, cow dairy, eggs, hazelnuts, and quinoa whenever possible, I’ve also been avoiding most processed and fried foods. I’ve lowered my inflammatory threshold considerably, and, in addition to managing stress, living mindfully, and making sure to exercise moderately, I feel I have a pretty firm grasp on how to manage my pain.

My AS has been in remission ever since I began taking a holistic approach to my health.

I’ve been without severe pain for years, and I haven’t taken medication to treat AS since August, 2017. I was really worried that my son would “break my deteriorating pelvis” when he was born, but we both emerged intact after a non-medicated birth.

Since I’m in remission, I’m often tempted to stray from my diet. When this happens, I remind myself of all the times I suffered with incredible pain, and I’m quickly convinced to stick to my mostly plant-based diet, high in Omega-3 fatty acids.

Avoiding stress is the hard part of pain management. Stress can come at us in so many different ways and forms! When non-life threatening stressors invade my life, I try to step back and think about how I can control my own response to stressors. I have the choice to worry, react, confront, ruminate, or otherwise negatively react. I can also choose to deal quickly and efficiently with the stressors, so that they go away. I consciously choose to focus on the present, and I try not to allow my mind to drift into concerns about the past or the future. Of course, this is a lot easier said than done.

I’ll never take my “pain free” life for granted. I’m so thankful for each day I can sleep through the night without pain. I can walk without fear of falling. I can run again. I can pick up my 2-year-old son, spin him around, and chase him around the yard when he wants to “run fast, Momma!” I can dance with my husband to our favorite songs. I can mow the lawn. I can walk through the grocery store and lift heavy bags from my car to the kitchen. All of these are so simple, and yet many people cannot do even the basic tasks due to chronic pain.

My husband Josh, our son Miles (26 months), and a pain-free Momma.

So, there you have it. My AS story. It’s personal to me, and I know that countless others have suffered much worse than I.

I am lucky I am able to manage holistically, but many people still need the extra help of medication to get them through the day.

Do you have experience with chronic pain? How are you able to manage it? I’d love to hear your story. If you feel comfortable, you can comment below, or send an email to ali.everthrive@gmail.com

With gratitude,

Ali

Jessica Lynn Williams on Thriving

Have you heard of The Mind Palace? It's a podcast that discusses what it means to live an intentional life. The show is produced by two minimalism advocates, Jessica Lynn Williams and Melissa Cain. The two women live across the globe from one another - Jessica lives in Chicago and Melissa lives in the United Kingdom - but they've conquered the distance and the time difference. At least three times a month, they meet in the digital realm to record podcasts where they candidly explore what it means to live minimally and mindfully.

Jess is also the social media manager for The Minimalists, Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus. She tours with them around the world, live-tweeting and blogging from the road. She is also project manager for Minimalist.org and curator of Minimal Maxims. Heavily entrenched in the worlds of mindfulness and minimalism, she would be a great person for me reach out to.

Happily, after some emailing back and forth, I was able to connect with Jess on the topic of intentional living. We shared thoughts on how to rise above the daily grind and make the most of our minds, bodies, and souls. When I asked her, in true Everthrive fashion, "What is your favorite way to thrive?", I expected her response might concern minimalism and its main thesis of moderation, but she surprised and delighted me by going more into the heart of the matter. According to Jess, when you live out your priorities, it is easy to thrive.

Jessica Lynn Williams on Thriving

My favorite way to thrive is to live out my priorities. A while ago, I read a quote by Joshua Fields Millburn of The Minimalists about priorities. It read, “Your priorities are what you do each day.”

That was a really sobering thought. Our time is our greatest and most precious currency, and without spending that currency intentionally, we’re setting ourselves up to live a life out of alignment. So, I regularly ask myself, “Is this my priority?"

What I love about this question, is that it’s an honest way to look at the way you’re spending your life. After asking this question, I generally feel a sense of contentment so long as I’ve made good decisions that day. If I don’t feel that contentment, this is a signal to me that I need to course correct. It’s important to note that my answer isn’t always hinging on my desire to be productive. I’m reminded by a quote by the lovely Mary Oliver:

"Presence is far more intricate and rewarding an art than productivity"

If I ask myself this question while I’m getting the bath started—so long as it’s the right time—I can answer with a resounding yes, because I am taking this time to dedicate to relaxing and de-stressing, a very worthy priority. If I ask myself this question right now, I can also answer with an honest to goodness yes. I’m taking the opportunity to connect with someone who is part of my proverbial tribe (Melissa loves tribes—so Melissa that one’s for you) and start a conversation about what it means to thrive in life. If I’m out grocery shopping—I can ask myself this question, and generally I’m thinking, yes. So long as I got a good lookin’ cart filled with real, healthy foods, I can say that my priorities are in line. 

One of my favorite aspects of this practice, is that it’s a fantastic antidote to anxiety. I am prone to being anxious, and one of the best ways I’ve heard of anxiety described is the feeling that you have to do everything all at once. By taking a moment to see my priorities clearly, I can give myself permission to fully immerse myself in whatever I’m doing, without getting distracted by other obligations. It gives me the opportunity to value presence. 

If I ask myself this question and the answer is ‘no,' then, I think about what I can do alternatively to spend my time better. It encourages me to consider how I would like to feel, and what I can do to feel that way. If I find myself mindlessly scrolling through the holy trinity of social media (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram) and I know that’s not a priority, I’ll instead consider how I’d like to feel and what I can do to make a good shift in my emotions. This isn’t only about feelings, and this isn’t only about a productivity hack—but it’s about living in accordance with your values, and questioning them regularly. It’s a wonderful way to get in touch with your own intuition and desires for your own life.

Stop Overthinking

"The more you overthink, the less you will understand."

-Habeeb Akande

“I'm tired of being inside my head. I want to live out here, with you.” - Colleen McCarthy. Photo taken outside of Detroit, MI, 2014.

I used to spend a lot of time overthinking.

Trapped in that never-ending "what-if" loop, I'd stress about how intruders might access my apartment. What if I left the candle burning at home? Will the hissing radiator explode while I'm at work? What if I made the wrong impression at dinner last night? What if I talked too much, or too little? Sometimes I'd feel for my wallet or keys three times in the course of a train commute. It made my heart palpitate a little less. 

I'd often ruminate on nonexistent symptoms. What if I had a terminal illness? I'd self-diagnose a skin anomaly on Web MD until concluding that I must immediately seek a specialist. I'd visualize my death, create my will, divide up possessions among family members, and my plan my ashes to be scattered at sea, despite a propensity for seasickness. In this real-life scenario, circa 2007, I actually did consult a specialist who, after a physical evaluation, told me there was absolutely nothing wrong with me, and that I was worrying too much. At that moment, I didn't feel relieved. Instead, I felt like an idiot. 

I thought it was a normal part of life to decipher codes and hidden meanings everywhere. Doesn't every intelligent person do this?

Actually, no. 

At the times where my worrying reached its peak, I wasn't happy with my life. My unhappiness was caused by fear, which in turn revealed overwhelming, incessant worrying. I was afraid of being alone, afraid of failing, and afraid of my future.

Through analyzing my own experience, others' experiences, and through research, I've learned that overthinking is a symptom of the distressed and isolated. I've learned that fear can lead to social anxiety, and sometimes even avoidance of social activities altogether.

People who are afraid of social interaction have a tendency to self-medicate through various outlets, such as shopping, spending hours on Netflix, social media, or abusing substances or food. These distractions may help for a bit, but ultimately they mask our fear, helping it fester deep within our minds, until it explodes when we least expect it, destroying relationships and our health. 

When we feel that life is in disorder, we devote too much time to the negative. In fear, we overthink things, and we cling to solutions to the wrong problems. We dwell on things that didn't go well, and constantly think up worst case scenarios. Often, it’s a general lack of confidence that causes us to worry, or perhaps its that we feel that worrying will protect us from harm.

Yes, back in caveman times when we were hunters and gatherers, stress did actually protect us from harm, as in death via saber-toothed tiger. Fast-forward to present day, we still get the same stress signals, but from benign sources that aren't life threatening.

Now, at the prospect of failing, let's say, the written portion of the driver's test at the DMV, our hearts pump three times their normal speed, sending more blood to our limbs. Capillaries close down, sending our blood pressure up, so that we can theoretically "sustain a surface wound and not bleed to death. Even our eyes dilate so that we can see better" (Stress Stop 2009). Our bodies and minds have trouble telling the difference between an encounter with a saber tooth tiger and a multiple-choice test. 

There are ways we can help our bodies and minds acknowledge the difference. To combat overthinking   and overreacting, we can practice the following: 

1. Notice and appreciate our thoughts - If we take account of the situation, and put it into perspective, we might be able to understand the reasons behind our catastrophic thinking patterns. Some might suggest keeping a journal to chart the frequency of our negative thoughts. Once we pinpoint the reasons, we can take positive action to ameliorate our thinking behaviors.

2. Spend time outside - Nature has a way of soothing us, taking us back to simpler times. All is well when the birds are chirping, the streams are flowing, and animals scamper to and fro. Time spent on trail or camping might increase our confidence to a point where there is no room for worrying. 

3. Exercise - Studies show that exercise is very effective at increasing alertness, and enhancing our brain function by releasing natural endorphins, aka pain killers Physical activity can actually trick us into feeling happier, making us actually happier. 

4. Socialize - Seek out your friends and loved ones. Talk to them. Make meaningful memories with them. They can help you see past your worries, give you some perspective and alleviate your loneliness. 

5. Breathe - Take some time to breathe, in and out, slowly. This naturally reduces your blood pressure and heart rate, calming you down so that you can see clearly. 

6. Let go - Know that you can only control what you do, say, or feel. You can't control anything that happens "at" you, and you can't control what other people do. You are in control of yourself, so let all of those worries go! Be grateful for what you have, take action to ensure your immediate safety and comfort, and know that you will be OK. 

For more methods to overcome worrying, check out the following related posts -

Learn from Loneliness

Acknowledge Fear

Breathe

Unburden by Choice

Be Free

Give yourself permission to breathe

Give yourself permission to breathe. 

Has anyone ever told you just to slow down and take a breath? How did it make you feel? Depending on your outlook, maybe you reacted with confusion or frustration. You breathe all day, you would be dead if you weren't breathing, why is this person telling me to breathe? That's dumb.

Or, maybe you paused and really thought about the advice. 

Sure, I breathe. But, I'm rarely aware of how I’m breathing, since my awareness is acutely focused on other things. Like everyone else, I'm sometimes anxious. I often stress about work tasks, my “to do” lists, and infinite personal and family obligations. Provoked by the constraints of an average workday, I often stress about my productivity. I'm always tormented by the lure of technology and the seemingly urgent notifications of my iPhone. 

All this builds up and creates anxiety.

Research shows that anxiety can restrict our breathing, leading to us to take quicker, shallow breaths, resulting in limited oxygen absorption and a spike in blood pressure. Cortisol levels increase, leading to restricted circulation and decrease immunity.

In searching for quick fixes, I've found that meditative practices such as yoga can lower anxiety levels. I've belonged to at least three yoga studios in the last 15 years. Each time I tried yoga, I was initially open to it. But, mid-pose, instead of breathing, I began stressing about when I should breathe, or not breathe. When should I breathe in? What should I do while I'm breathing? Am I even doing this pose correctly? 

My mentality towards yoga as a cure for anxiety has never really worked for me. I was forcing myself to breathe and measuring my effectiveness against others in the mirror. I needed to change my mindset.

I needed to grant myself permission to breathe.

Henrick Edburg, in his article "The Power of Breathing," suggests taking two minutes away from the anxiety-inducing situation to focus on breath. I've found that two minutes is more than enough to find space when my world closes in. Anytime I encounter stress, or feel overwhelmed, I simply take one large breath in, and out. I do this alone, or in the midst of a work presentation or a lively gathering – no one can tell. I do this when I’m cooking, writing, or when I find myself stuck in an endless social media loop.

Now, I practice conscious breathing. 

Taking one deep breath helps us to consciously pause, reflect, and refocus our perceptions, removing us from the source of anxiety. After taking one breath, whatever was bothersome becomes a little less annoying, and definitely more approachable. We never have anything to lose by just taking one conscious, full breath.

There's so much to gain by granting ourselves permission to breathe.