Billy Schroeder was absolutely exhausted. He was a few days into a tortuous 10-day marathon practice in West Texas that was being run by Texas A&M’s head football coach, Paul “Bear” Bryant. There were no regular water breaks and no medical personnel on hand to help these student-athletes cope with the temperatures that exceeded 100 …
Imagine you are back in your school days and you look over just in time to spot that mischievous classmate of yours pulling the fire alarm. Instantly, the bells start clanging and the lights start flashing. It’s total chaos. Understandably, some people are clearly panicked. They are half walking, half running in an attempt to …
Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference. Serenity Prayer A while back, a client told me, “I’m not sure if I’m cured.” He said this after having made major changes in his life. He had stopped …
When you fight, you invite a fight. But when you do not resist, you meet no resistance. When you refuse to play the game, you are out of it. – Nisargadatta Maharaj In part 1, we talked about how thought is automatic, habitual and designed to keep us from being killed; thus, it is …
The first principle is that you must not fool yourself — and you are the easiest person to fool. – Richard Feynman “Did I turn it off? I think I did…But wait, what if I didn’t? The house will catch on fire. Fine, I’ll turn around and go back to check. Shit, now …
In Part 1, we discussed how our attempts at controlling our human pain — the unpleasant thoughts, emotions and sensations — don’t work and oftentimes create a whole new set of issues for us. So, let’s jump into two other concepts to understand Pain vs. Suffering. Let’s take social anxiety as an example. The “pain” …
What if IT, this thing that you have been struggling with for so long, isn’t a problem to be solved? What if you don’t truly have control over IT anyway? And what if the attempts at control are actually making IT worse? As we have previously covered, human pain is universal. It’s part of the …
Imagine you and I are walking in the African Savanna 200,000 years ago. I’m basking in the sounds of the birds singing in the trees, gazing at the orange sun on the horizon and soaking in the fragrance of the various flowers as we walk. You are anxiously scanning the horizon for potential enemy tribes, …
Oftentimes when we experience social anxiety, we feel as though we are performers on a stage and that each social encounter is just that, a performance. We feel as though we must meet the expectations of others and “be something” in particular as opposed to however we actually are in that moment. Of course this …
2020 will certainly forever be known as the year of the pandemic. Because you are an introvert and thus most likely an empathy to some degree, it’s been painful for you to watch helplessly as thousands of people have died and millions have been negatively impacted economically. The fact that NO ONE seems able to …
Quarantine was a Reprieve from Social Anxiety, Now What?? Read More »
