🐺 Breathe!
I panicked as a kid
People that know me now would have a hard time believing that as a kid I panicked a lot and was quite paranoia, if things didn’t happen on time or deadlines would be closing fast I would freak the fuck out. And not just about the big things.
Half of my family is Spanish/Portuguese so we used to have a lot of family get-togethers at a beach in Portugal. I would always put my towel 5 to 10m higher than the rest of the family
”Just in case in became high tide”
Of course I was young and naïve and supposed to still panic about the little things, but I panicked more than regular kids.
Hakuna Matata
The first change came after seeing the Lion king. Even though I was quite young ”Hakuna Matata” spoke to me. That little meerkat and warthog had a point… They were living the life! This impacted my life in a small way, I was still young and scared but determined to live the Hakuna Matata Life
Ask yourself
The big change came when I saw a movie / Image / Quote (I can’t really remember) containing the lines
” Why stress/panic? Ask yourself ‘Is there anything I can do about it?’ If yes why stress? Do something about it. If no why stress? You can’t do anything about it anyway”
only to much later be enforced a bit more by a quote from the movie bridge of spies:
James Donovan: You’re not worried?
Rudolf Abel: Would it help?
This made so much sense to me that it took a lot of my stress and panic away. It allowed me to relax and be one step closer to my desired Hakuna Matata Life.
I became quite the relaxed guy, people started to notice and commenting on me really not worrying about a thing (cause every little thing…. Is gonna be alright).
Breathe
Even though I was indeed not worried a lot, in stressful situations I still panicked. Panic never helps, it clouds your judgment, blocks your thinking, you can’t be rational… you panic and don’t know what to do… Everything around you goes so fast, you miss things, you think WHAT IF I FUCK UP, you over think things. You don’t think about things enough, there is no saving the situation, O M G YOU ARE IN A SITUATION!, WHAT TO DO WHAT TO DO!!!, did you leave the stove on? Will it hurt? Can it be fixed? Will anyone notice?
STOP!
Breathe...
Focus...
Think...
This is the most useful advice I’ve ever been given. In a stressful situation (or whenever you feel stress/panic is starting to act up) take a moment to just breath.
"BUT I DON’T HAVE TIME TO TAKE A MOMENT! OMG! TIME IS ALMOST UP!!!! I HAVE NO MOMENTS LEFT"
Like I Said, Stop! Breathe, FOCUS, think.
While in panic mode you can’t focus or think, so you’ll most certainly fail. But if you take a moment to breathe you’ll relax. You’ll see things clearly and will be able to focus increasing your chances of success.
Conclusion
- Hakuna Matata
- Ask yourself
- Breathe
These three things combined changed my life, I hardly ever worry, panic or stress which has improved my quality of and view on life.
Problems that arise I can deal with calmly and with more focus, drastically improving my success rate. You start seeing life trough different eyes and approach things in alternative manners.
Some one being a dick to you? Angry at you because you don't drive as he wants? Honking giving you the finger?
Don't bother, while you are at home drinking a beer thinking about your next holiday destination. He'll still be at home cursing at you.
You'll notice after a while you become kinder and more helpful as you don't get frustrated that fast and realize being kind and helpful is the easier and less stressful way to go.
Disclaimer: Having no worries does not mean you don’t care. There is a difference. You don’t worry because you know that either you can do something about it and you do it, or there is nothing that can be done and that to you accept. Fair warning… managers and bosses do not tend to like it when their employees don’t stress even if you still always deliver ahead of time.
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🐺 @wolv
Very good advise, I have personally always had a version of this after having far too many deadlines which turned out to be hurry up and wait jobs. As everything the way I approach it is a bit more toxic , the panic arising from expecting a future situation and from a current situation at hand is not much different, the future one you have more time to mess more things up through losing your focus and running around like a headless chicken kicking everyone in your way and not really accomplishing anything.
As you say not worrying is not the same as not caring, which is my way combined with extreme anger internalized. This developed from working with utter idiots in general , everything being just oh so "important" , now my approach is to just not give a shit which maybe is worse than hakuna matata so I will try hakuna matata instead with a dash of anger.
I am relating this to dealing with people , since mostly I can't think of a difficult situation that is not caused by someone else or even yourself.
I have the worlds patience actually, and rarely would the person even know exactly how much I despise them in the moments - smile and wave - so what I take from what you said is that I should see no worries not just externally to people around me, but also for me to believe myself. Another way that not giving a shit differs, because you can worry and still not give a shit.
Interesting point of view. I work with the same type of idiots, quite often I feel like every step I progress in a project those people drag us back 2... and that it would be faster to just let me work on it on my own.
However what I am saying does not work with anger, there should be no anger. Just read the article again replacing "stress" with "anger" :P it works the same in the end.
Thank you for your reply :) it is great to see I got other people thinking
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Wolv interesting point of view (he said taking a deep breath) upvote from me
Thank you very much :) Trying to do what I can.
Hopefully the more people start doing this the friendlier this place will be haha
Yeah just Breathe deeply, focus (on something else than you), think (not too much!), go discover new places, make yourself feel new emotions (going to movies, dancing, singing, exercising) to weaken your stressing emotions !
That's what I do :)
Today I went here : https://steemit.com/photography/@stl.nolaim/come-with-me-tropical-greenhouse-in-paris-a-breath-of-fresh-air
it was so amazing... the colors... green is so soothing !
Thanks for your post !
Thank you for sharing your views on the matter, very insightful.
I agree if you have the time to calm your had most certainly go explore see the world :) The world can be an amazing place with so much to do and so much to see!!
Let me check your post out it sounds wonderful!
Thank you
You're welcome @wolv ;)
I can't upvote this ... because its past the payout ...
so
@tipu send tip please :)
and.... when I went to the doctor - do you know what she wrote in massive letters on the top of the paper with instructions?
B R E A T H E
hehehee when i tell people this is part of how I battle the stress... I think some people think I'm kidding. hehehe
but - no - it's extremely effective :) biological proof that it works like a charm ;)
great post! and i love that the Lion King helped you to see hehehehe
haha yeah this is an old one indeed, but a good one none the less.
Your doctor seems to be a smart person. And yes indeed it does work (if done correctly :P ) you need to not just breath but take a second too.
haha yeah xD Timon and pumba are wise teachers!
I deep breathe until I fall asleep. lololol oxygen-intoxication
and yeah - i have a cool functional medicine doctor - so they don't just look at the one symptom... they look at the whole body and see how it all works together. see what is malfunctioning... fix the route cause :)
haha as long as it gets you there.
haha that sounds like a proper one! one to keep around! I should get me one of those
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