#anxiety

#anxiety

For starters, ask them. If that still doesn't help, give them a gift that lets them know more about who you are. Both strategies, Aknin has found, will likely increase your connection with the other person. Most importantly, when you give from the heart, you will likely reduce the loneliness of others, which, again, will have the boomerang effect of reducing yours.

I made the mistake of jokingly telling her to 'leave it with me' and since then she has brought it up repeatedly I normally pride myself on gift-giving in my relationship. In all of the Christmases and birthdays my girlfriend and I have spent together, she has always said that the presents I give her are ones she loves the most.

The "if that happens, then this happens" flow of that story reminds me of how allergy parents' minds often zig and zag their way through the anxiety and stress of making decisions about attending holiday gatherings. "If we go to Grandma's house for the holiday dinner, then we'll have to be around our allergens, which feels unsafe." "If we're around our allergens, then we'll have to be on guard the whole time, which will feel very stressful." "If it feels very stressful, then why are we even going? Maybe we should just stay home."

Lately, I have been feeling a little FOBO. With the rise of AI, I worry about my contribution to the field. My FOBO stems from another FOBO: If my clients and my editor start opting for better, faster, and cheaper options, what happens to me? I can feel my FOBLO rising. Given my FOPO, my FOMU will probably trigger FODA. I won't change, I won't adapt, I won't do anything, leaving me with full-blown FOBA in a world that has already moved on.

When panic and anxiety strike, the body becomes confused, interpreting, overinterpreting, and misinterpreting signals from the brain and reacting with a slew of uncomfortable and sometimes frightening physical symptoms. These can include disordered breathing, dizziness, nausea, blurred vision, and chest pain or heart palpitations, to name a few. The body's nervous system becomes overreactive, sending panic and emergency signals to all of the body's other systems.

In many cases, what holds young adults back is not a lack of ability or talent. Rather, they overthink in negative ways, with their minds their worst enemies. Often, they battle three distorted, self-limiting beliefs that damage their self-worth and make progress feel scary. These beliefs thrive in silence, fueling anxiety, avoidance, and vast levels of insecurity. Here is what those lies sound like as self-sabotaging inner narratives.

These statements sound reasonable; even wise. But this seemingly practical mindset reveals a belief that actually amplifies anxiety while keeping our vision and impact small. That belief? That the big picture just "is what it is"-and that our best option is just to learn to navigate it better. Obviously, understanding our limitations is wise. Taking action where we can is imperative. And we must all navigate the world as it currently is.

Though not scientific, this exercise was representative of the body's fight response: In a tightened, constricted pose, we tend to feel boxed into our discomfort, like a suitcase packed too tightly or a cup filled to the very brim. When we experience anxiety, our body's natural, automatic response is to shift immediately into a tightened, constricted state, much like an animal bearing down to protect itself from an attack by a predator.

In psychology, this is called experiential avoidance. Trouble is, this experiential avoidance may seem helpful in the moment, but research shows that continuous avoidance of uncomfortable or upsetting thoughts can actually increase our anxiety and distress. Indeed, Dr. Russ Harris outlined in his book The Happiness Trap that experiential avoidance contributes to anxiety, depression, and numerous other mental health challenges; the harder one tries to avoid the uncomfortable thoughts and feelings, the "more bad feelings we create."

A patient in consultation with a psychologist.nirat via Getty Images T herapist Jessica Romero's patient saw two men abducted in front of their apartment in broad daylight and froze out of fear. Psychiatrist Erica Lubliner works with a parent whose child sobs for fear his dark skin makes him a target of immigration agents. Therapist Yanira Hernández has a patient whose focus during work wanders to the immigration raids and her parents' safety.

Have you ever felt the need to start a task, but you just can't get to that first step? Maybe it's a household chore, a course you've wanted to pursue for a while, even something incredibly trivial-starting simply feels impossible. This experience, a combination of overwhelm and mental freeze, defines the reality of millions of people around the world. And there's a name for it: task initiation paralysis.

Imagine the negative event or possibility in question and feel the intensity of the feeling you experience in catastrophizing about it. While keying into your negative feeling, rank how bad the event in question feels on the 10-point negative values scale. Focus now on rationally assessing how bad the possibility really is. When you think of very bad things like earthquakes and tsunamis, is this truly as bad as