Combating Anxiety - So, you think YOU'RE isolated... Vol. 3

I've been writing about themes of isolation over the past few weeks for my team. Historical examples, novels/movies, professions. I'm going to share a few of those here until my team tells me to stop, or I run out of ideas.

This week in "So, you think YOU'RE isolated..." we're going to dive into something more personal, and something I suspect almost everyone is dealing with in some capacity right now. That something is combating ANXIETY. 

So, you think YOU'RE isolated...you're right, but it may be in your head.

For some people anxiety is acute and identifiable. You make some mistake and then fret over the expected consequences. For some of us though, it's more like the ceiling lowering an inch each day. Broad, imperceptible, but shrinking your world until you find yourself trapped. Even if you've been happily anxiety free in life, I suspect the ceiling is a few inches lower in your house since shelter-in-place orders went into effect.

One lesson I've learned about combatting anxiety and the isolation you perceive from it is that routine (or sometimes ritual) is key. I learned this by accident several years ago by establishing new routines in my life, only to discover that as these returns compounded life got a lot better. Like WAY BETTER. Like, "holy shit, I didn't even realize I was experiencing nearly crippling anxiety until I got better" better. 

Another way to think about routine is to form habits. And if there was ever a time in your life where day-to-day consistency lent itself to forming new habits it is RIGHT NOW. 

Here are a few that helped change my relationship with anxiety.

To keep anxiety at bay...(daily practice)

• Meditate - If you're skeptical I'll just say 2 things: (1) don't judge it till you've tried it, and (2) if you do try it, give it a minimum of 10 days. I've been meditating for around 4 years and I wouldn't go a day without it. Meditation is the foundation of my ability to manage anxiety. You don't have to know anything to get started. Just download Headspace or Calm or check out someone like Tara Brach.
• Keep a journal - There are two that I use everyday. (1) After meditation I read short passages and then journal on the central concepts. (2) Every night before bed I keep a Gratitude Journal of 3 things I'm thankful for that day. On tough days it might just be that the sun was out, but I find something to be grateful for. If you want to nerd out on journals, I like these.
• Take a cold shower - If you flip your water to cold for the last 45-60 seconds of your shower and just concentrate on your breath, it's amazing the energy you'll feel for hours afterwards. This one is seasonal for me because there's no ice cold water in the pipes during the Texas summer. I love it so much I looked into putting a refrigeration system in my bathroom, but it didn't work out.
• Eat breakfast - When you get busy it's easy to ignore things like breakfast. Huge mistake. After over a decade of coffee for breakfast I rediscovered breakfast before work. It was like I found a new gear. Eat whole foods, protein heavy, and save bagels, waffles or pancakes for the rare weekend treat. 
• Get some exercise - Anything you want. Walk, swim, garden, jump rope. You'd be hard pressed getting me to do a burpee or break into a jog, but I'll happily stand under a barbell any day of the week. The key is, find what works for you and do it regularly.

I track all of these activities, along with other habits I've adopted, in a great app called Way of Life It's an easy source of accountability to keep new habits on track, and for data nerds it let's you review progress over extended periods of time.

For those moments of panic...(immediate action)

• Find a song or mantra - If I feel my anxiety climbing I listen to "Haunted Heart" from the Bill Evans record Explorations on repeat. Sometimes I just concentrate on Bill's left hand, or the brush accents on the snare, but for me this song can fix almost anything.
• Read a short passage - Anything that centers, calms or inspires you. I read Epictetus's first chapter of the Enchiridion "Some things in the world are up to us, while others are not..."
• Box Breathe - This is a Navy Seal technique. Sort of a quick meditation, but it starts working in <30 seconds. Try this app for guidance and remember this Navy Seal mantra, "Calm is contagious."

These are just a few things that I do. There are bound to be other things that work for you. But finding your routines can work wonders in these anxious times, and ultimately improve your performance and happiness.

One Place to Start

Interested to try out something new, but unsure where to start? Check out the book Tools of Titans. It's like Cliff's Notes for lessons Tim Ferris learned from the worlds top performers in nearly every field. I recommend buying a print copy so you can flip to any page and start reading.

A few years back I hosted a team offsite where every member of my team read through profiles from Tools of Titans and picked a habit to try for a month. When we met as a team people shared their experiences. There were individuals who cut their body fat by 30%, doubled their bench press, turned a 10X profit on stocks, and even someone who found a way to face (and break out of) a difficult bout with depression. For each it wasn't the specific action, but simply the decision to act that was transformative.

It's such a great book because it has something different for everyone. My wife read it cover to cover and implemented a completely different set of habits in her own life. My Amazon order history says I've gifted this book >20 times. 

Currently I'm experimenting with...

Using tools like Whoop and MyFitnessPal (yep, more data) to track the impacts of sleep, heart rate variability and nutrition on general well being and happiness. 

If you take one thing away

There's a business maxim that if you're not growing you're dying. This has a clear application in all aspects of life, but it's critical to realize that "growing" doesn't always mean an up-and-to-the-right chart of peak performance. Sadly life is harder than Instagram would have us believe. Sometimes growth is how you respond to the challenges. 

If you're experiencing one of those downward trends currently, from anxiety or anything else, then this is an opportunity to define how you will grow.