When the world feels overwhelming, and the pace of life is out of control; when your thoughts become overly reactionary, and you’re watching the world through fear and worry glasses, do this to interrupt that loop of thinking.

It seems like we humans struggle to gain clarity when we’re put into survival mode, informed by fear and worry.  We can inadvertently seek out alarming news reports or conversation, and absorb an air of distracted tension without even knowing it.  And it’s not until we step back and take a deep breath that we notice what our thoughts are telling us, and it’s in this moment that it is so crucial to pause.

We can interrupt this loop of anxiety-provoking thinking and choose another narrative if we can simple pause.

Sometimes we can do this for ourselves just by changing our scenery, who we are spending time with, or by monitoring what we are consuming on line.  Other times, often, we need help interrupting this pattern.  We can connect with a close friend or family member, we can seek professional support through a therapist or counselor, or we can take up a mindfulness practice.  There are so many other opportunities that I’ve not mentioned here that can also help us interrupt that pattern of thinking.

The other day I could feel myself struggling with this exact pattern of fear- and worry-based thinking and I began noticing what was happening in my body.  I had a full cold-sweat going, my heart was racing, my breathing shortened, and I knew exactly what was going to happen next if I didn’t do something right away.  My bodies cues for an oncoming panic attack are bold and clear and hard to ignore.  But for many years I did ignore them, and panic attacks didn’t seem to make any sense to me until I changed one over arching habit. 

I stopped acting like fear and worry were who I was, and viewed them as a pair of glasses that can be taken off.

Now I don’t always remember that I can take them off.  Bad habits die hard.  But knowing now that those feelings are optional have given me incentive to train myself to reach out to a close friend and ask her (quite directly)  to give me a gentle nudge to take off the glasses when I can’t do it myself.  So the other day, as my body was giving me every indication that it was going to go into full panic-mode, I messaged her right away and just like clockwork, she reminded me that I didn’t need to be bossed around by my fears and worries. 

She reminded me that I could choose to slow down – to go at a “tortoise pace” she said – and allow that slower pace to be enough of an interruption to take off the glasses.

My heart rate lessened, my cold sweats were replaced with “regular” desert-induced sweats, and a literal fog seemed to lift from my eyes.  I had a choice, and this felt like a profound revelation, in spite of the fact that I had revisited this revelation several times before in my life.  But it’s true!  When you’re in the thick of it and the world feels like it just might implode, it is profound to recognize the choices we have.  We have a choice about what we let in, and in what we let go of, and it’s when we can pause long enough to take off those glasses that those choices come into focus.

We don’t have to participate in fear and worry that doesn’t belong to us. 

We can choose to let those fears and worries go and trust that it will all work out in the end.  My mama used to always tell me, “this too shall pass,” and though as a teenager I couldn’t stand her Buddha-like “advice,” it’s true.  Worry never helped prevent calamity, nor did it ever induce joy, but being present and seeing the world without that lens of fear and worry all the time does make for a more contended and peaceful existence, regardless of the chaos or mayhem around me.

Try pausing long enough to take off your fear- and worry-based glasses, and you may just discover that the peace and happiness you were looking for was there all along.

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