It is Sunday evening and the working week has not even started, yet your mind is already three meetings ahead. You are rehearsing the difficult conversation, drafting the reply you have not been asked for yet, quietly scanning the week for the thing most likely to go wrong. If someone asked what you were doing, […]
Your Threat System Has One Motive: Survival. Here’s How to Give It a Better One Read More »
You wake before the alarm with your chest already tight and your heart going, though nothing has actually happened yet. Or you are sitting in a meeting when your mind empties, your face goes hot, and your body seems to brace as if for impact. Later you wonder what is wrong with you, why you
Your Nervous System Isn’t Broken: It’s Doing Exactly What It Was Designed to Do Read More »
It’s late, the room is dark, and you’re deep in a debate with your own mind. It says something will go wrong. You marshal the evidence for why it won’t. It comes back with a new worry. You answer that one too. An hour passes and you’re no closer to winning, only more awake. If
Stop Arguing With Your Anxiety: You’re Both Just Guessing Read More »
You’ve learned, without ever quite deciding to, that some of your feelings are welcome and others are a nuisance. The trouble is that the ones you’ve filed under nuisance are often the ones with the most to tell you. Think about a relationship, romantic or otherwise, that mattered to you. Alongside the love and the
The Emotions You Keep Overriding Are Trying to Tell You Something Read More »
“If I can just think this through one more time, I’ll feel ready.” That’s the promise worry makes, and for a lot of capable people it’s a promise they’ve been chasing for years. You know the loop. Something that matters is coming up, a decision, a conversation, a piece of work you’ll be judged on,
Worry Feels Like Preparation But It Isn’t. Read More »
You know the feeling. You’re about to send the message, make the call, put yourself forward, and a voice pipes up: are you sure? What if you’re wrong? What if you’re not up to this? For a lot of capable people, that voice is a near-constant companion, and its favourite trick is to sound like
Self-Doubt Isn’t a Sign You’re Not Good Enough. It’s Your Brain Doing Its Job Too Well Read More »