How To Manage Anxiety

Whenever I am feeling particularly anxious I find a quiet place where I know I will not be interrupted by another human being — usually my bedroom — and lower the lights and lay down on my back with my arms folded at my chest, as if I had been prepared for burial. I close my eyes and count very slowly back to zero from one hundred. When I have reached zero I allow myself to imagine that I have died, that all of my problems are now ended, and that the future I had been feeling so nervous about has now completely disappeared because the end of my existence means the end of my problems (and also makes things a lot nicer for everyone else who is still around). One by one I focus on every issue that troubles or vexes or causes me distraction and I run through the scenario of each one ceasing to matter because I am dead and gone and there’s nothing to be done about it. It’s all fine. Better than fine, because it’s all nothing. Then I breathe very deeply for several seconds, exhale and open my eyes. “This is gonna happen for you, I promise,” I assure myself. And then I don’t feel so bad! For a little while, at least. But I might not be the best counsel on these things. Here is some better advice.