Opening a can of whoopass on the "what if" engine

I haven't mentioned this sort of thing in a while. When I was in therapy we went over a "technique" I'm supposed to (and do) use when I get anxious. The technique is called mindfulness. Mindfulness is defined as:

[...]the paying of bare or direct attention to each moment of our lives[...]

The basics of this I outlined in a post many moons ago (almost a year...wow!) called Woooosaaaaaa. The goal is to call things what they are. If you're saying "what if" then you simply tell yourself "self, this is anxiety". It seems simple at first. But, the trick is knowing what's anxiety. We're so good at it that we can be anxious and not even know it. Mindfulness requires that you pay almost constant attention to the thoughts you're thinking while you think them. Realizing you were anxious an hour later is really of no use. In reality that will probably make you more anxious about being anxious which means, like me, you need drugs and a good stiff shot of whiskey to calm down.

I still practice this on a regular basis. Even during the periods I feel well (like now) I still catch myself "what if-ing" like in the last post. At that moment I stop the thought and remind myself that its anxiety, that just because I'm not near a hospital it doesn't mean I'll have a heart attack. I've yet to have one in the 31 years I've been near them, why do I expect to have one now.

This takes practice. We're our own worst enemy. At first I found it exceedingly difficult to believe myself. After a while though, I proved myself right. I didn't have a heart attack. Its the same positive reinforcement you use to train dogs and babies.

Anyway, try it sometime. Use it along with meditation and I promise you'll see a difference. Here's a rather lengthy article on mindfulness:

Mindfulness