Learning #20: Monkey Mind

Photo Credit:  Joy Heffernan

Anxiety's been high this summer and though I've considered working on living a more peaceful life, I've had some trouble learning how to do this.  My anxiety is fairly specific right now---I'm nervous about moving away for a year to a new country.  I'm nervous about coming back to a new unknown job.  (I'm excited about both these things as well, so don't feel too sorry for me, unless you feel like it).  I know if I keep moving to the next right thought, the next right action, it will be better for me, but mostly I just sit around feeling anxious and acting like a freak, and getting further and further behind with the To Do list.

I read an editorial about anxiety in the NYT yesterday by Daniel Smith, the author of Monkey Mind, that may help me learn to settle my crazy self down.

Basically Smith says that anxiety is the stress that comes with not knowing stuff.  BUT, if you can embrace the certainty that you aren't ever going to know with certainty what's going to happen, then you can know something that's true and solid.  So I think that's pretty smart, and it's a new perspective for me this summer.  Good questions from Smith to ponder as I noodle around today:  For what is the message that everything is fluid but its own solid fact? What is the relentlessness of uncertainty but something about which you can always be certain?

So, I've learned a little trick to deal with anxiety from Mr. Smith. And I thank him heartily.