Days that Increase Anxiety and Techniques to Calm It

It has been a difficult week to be a thinking, feeling person--perhaps every week is, if one is aware and reads widely enough.  I won't do a complete catalog, but it was a week that began with the Pope declared that he will not sanction in any way same sex marriage or commitment services and then moved on to the Atlanta shootings that targeted Asian women.  I'm having trouble sleeping because my neighborhood has turned into one big short term rental market, and it's noisy with party people.  I wake up numerous times, and I lay there making sure I'm hearing the noise of good times, not the noise that means the police should be summoned.

All of this on top of the drumbeat of vaccine news and new variants of the virus news, and it's no wonder that many of us are feeling worse, even as spring is upon us and we grow ever closer to enough of us being vaccinated.  And I suspect I am not alone in having interesting job developments on top of it all.

This morning, I will go to get groceries early, before the rest of the world shows up.  I've always done this, even in pre-pandemic times.  I'm listening to today's episode of On Being, which discusses the nervous system and how to work with it during these high stress times.  Christine Runyon has all sorts of great techniques, like uncrossing our legs and putting both feet on the floor when we're sitting and/or taking a long exhale.

I got another anxiety reducing tip from this episode of 1A:  trace the fingers of one hand with one finger of the other hand.  As you move up and down the fingers, you inhale and exhale.  Tracing the fingers is better than just breathing deeply.  It gives the brain a physical focus in a way that just breathing does not.

I predict the days to come will bring us many opportunities to practice these techniques.