Your New Year
Serenity now. And other thoughts on a slightly less hashtag#anxiety 😡 provoking start to the new year.
I’ve been taking a lot more pictures lately. Videos, too. They help me remember how places looked, and with some practice how they felt. Some have kids or friends in them, and those are just for me. Others, like this one, are for sharing with you. On my best days I can revisit, and on my worst it least makes me pause.
It’s because what used to creep in the Sunday night before the first real work day of the year now kicks off somewhere between hotel checkout and rental car return. I see it in the affect of folks at the airport pre-holiday and post. Maybe it’s the mark of a true vacation. Serenity found and later lost.
An Audible-informed armchair psychologist, I’ve read or heard all the books on happiness, and also quite a few more on anxiety. I’ve concluded 💯 of us experience both often, and never in the exact same way.
To me anxiety is the signal and the noise. Most say what was surely productive instinctual reaction to predators initially is now brought on by the prospect of mildly bad news, maybe even the buzz of a text alert.
That’s a scary thought, that we can worry ourselves in to running from a tiger by just thinking about an unlikely ‘what if.’ And that if we don’t run off that tiger-induced adrenal juice quickly that we’re going to have to let it dissipate as slow as cold molasses through sweaty palms, headache, and sometimes nasty reactive responses to those we love most.
What I’ve learned about meditating, besides that my change works and took my own high blood pressure to normal within weeks of making this change, is that it needs to be done in the setting of stress not before or after. For some settings it’s the silent deeper attention to breath, and in others it’s a very active and physical meditation. Lifting heavy things and punching 🥊 a bag are two of my favorites.
If all else fails, my wife has taught me to meditate using the Delta Air Lines app. Where a sunny and warm vacation can be added up to a year out. Magic 🪄what it can do when you need something to look forward to.
If serenity now is a new concept, look up Seinfeld season 9 episode 3 for further instructions. And if you want to see this spot for yourself it’s $1 pier fare in South Palm Beach.
Happy New Year! 🎈