First, We Make the Beast Beautiful: A New Journey Through Anxiety—A Personal Journey Through Anxiety and Self-Discovery

by Sarah Wilson

“It’s easier to do something every day, without exception, than to do something ‘most days,’” she said. “When you say ‘I’ll walk four days a week,’ you debate which four days, and wake up debating whether you can skip Tuesday.”

Work your core, decrease the stress response. Yoga, Pilates, planking . . . it will all build the right muscles—physical and mental. It makes sense when you think that we’ve always known the inverse: that a stooped posture from poor core strength is a sign of angst in a person.

Alex Korb writes in “The Grateful Brain,” “Gratitude can have such a powerful impact on your life because it engages your brain in a virtuous cycle. Your brain only has so much power to focus its attention. It cannot easily focus on both positive and negative stimuli.” Literally, you can’t be grateful and anxious at the same time. Once again, the threat system in our amygdala is overridden.

Japanese scientists call the phenomenon Shinrin-yoku, or “forest bathing.” Their recent studies suggest the benefits come from breathing in “aromas from the trees” known as phytoncides, an array of natural aerosols that trees give off for pest control.

We don’t have time to adjust, to work out our priorities, and to reflect on whether what we’re doing when we’re running around madly is actually meaningful to us.

We are “on” 24/7. Every gap is filled. Even waiting at bus stops. We don’t leave work and unwind and stare into space for a bit, enjoying the sound of the birds, the soft dusk sunlight on fellow passenger’s faces. Nope, we must prune our social feeds.