“I have accepted fear as part of life – specifically the fear of change…
I have gone ahead despite the pounding in the heart that says: turn back….”

― Erica Jong

I have been feeling a lot of intense emotions recently, including fear, panic, and anxiety. Anyone else?? For those of us in the U.S., the past few weeks have been a lot!

In the past, I have responded to fear and panic by springing into action and getting really, really busy. On some level, I think I was trying to solve my anxiety by doing enough things, producing more results, achieving more. Spoiler alert: it doesn’t work.

This past week, I practiced paying attention to my body and noticing when I was feeling tense, clenched, or when I had a knot in my stomach. I made a point of slowing down and being with my body the way I would a dear friend who was distressed, or with a beloved animal companion. I avoided shaming myself for being ‘too intense’, (which I have also tried in the past. Spoiler alert: it doesn’t work), and I wrapped my arms around myself, took deep breaths, went for a walk in the sunshine with my mom…

At the end of one particularly intense day, my mom and I watched a couple of episodes of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, and I was reminded about how humor is really good medicine for me. It was hard to take everything quite so seriously while watching Dana Carvey struggling to get out of a high-end dune buggy or while listening to Tracy Morgan talk about ballpark franks.

What does work for me is to

• Acknowledge and accept that I am feeling afraid and panicky;
• Turn towards the emotion and the sensations in my body with affectionate attention, empathy, and curiosity;
• Take deep breaths and find ways to move my body (especially to music!); and
• Find something light-hearted to interrupt my intensity so that I can laugh and put things into a broader perspective.

It doesn’t always work immediately, but it does work. And in the meantime, just watch Dana Carvey struggling to get out of a high-end dune buggy!