Lately it seems that everyone I know – myself included – is worried, stressed or anxious. As someone who begins the day with a cup of coffee and an infusion of headlines, this makes perfect sense to me. We live with an over-abundance of things to worry about and it would seem ungenerous (or uncaring) not to stress out over at least some of them. But for many of us, those normal daily doses of anxiety can build up, undermining resilience and eventually poisoning pleasure.
Sometime this winter, I noticed that my body seemed to have forgotten how to relax. I'd crawl into bed at night tired and ready to sleep, only to realize that my muscles were tensed, my breathing was tight, and my thoughts were interrupting each other in quick little unfinished bursts. I come from a long line of habitual worriers. And, late night rumination and I are old friends. But something about this felt … excessive. Out of control.
A recent New York Times article got me thinking about the difference between worry, stress and anxiety – terms we tend to use interchangeably, but which are physiologically distinct. More reading led me to concepts like "almost-anxiety" and "amygdala hijack." A little bit of knowledge can make a big difference. Maybe, I thought, I'd been overdosing on stress. And really – haven't we all? This feels like the beginning of a bigger conversation – we'll begin it in this week's show "Out of the Anxiety Box" — but it's a subject we'll be coming back to as we struggle individually and collectively to face the urgent worries and fears of our time without surrendering our capacity for joy.
– Anne