A Guide for Anxious Humans
Readers of How To Be Everything—Emilie Wapnicks’s guidebook to life—will be familiar with the Phoenix Approach, which describes how people occasionally reinvent themselves like the legendary phoenix rising from its own ashes.
This sounds exciting—and it is. But it turns out burning up and rebirthing out of the remains can hurt.
When it comes to productivity, some say you should focus on one thing only, working on that sole project for many hours a day, for as long as it takes. Others believe in small daily progress over a longer period of time (maybe with more variety and additional projects that you shift between).
…
I feel… weird.
After years of building my knowledge of “How To Self Care,” I’ve become well-versed in identifying my needs and fixing them. I know how to rest when I’m tired, or how to channel my energy when there’s an excess.
What emotion comes to your mind when you think of 2020-21?
For me, right now, it’s joy.
As in, “does anyone remember what joy feels like?”
I’ve never felt more useless than during covid. In my country, there ws a time when every Thursday evening everybody lined up outside to applaud health workers. Quite rightly, we recognised their bravery and heroism in frightening circumstances.
I, on the other hand, wasn’t saving lives. I’ve spent the last few years writing…
When you don’t know how long an unusual situation will last, it makes sense to wait for it to blow over. But if it goes on long enough, we must adapt.
They say “comparison is the thief of joy.” But, unfortunately, comparison can’t steal other people’s joy.
Believe me, I’ve tried.
As a child I was confused by a story about a kid torturing himself by trying not to think about orange penguins. The intended moral was that it’s impossible to not think about something. But I never understood why you wouldn’t want to think about orange penguins. They seemed fun!
The first time I ever spoke in front of a large audience, I was terrified. Even the (ironic) comfort that the topic was “my fear of public speaking” didn’t help.
Each attempt to fix my anxiety only unearthed more problems… but it IS possible to get anxiety under control.