[avin01]

I relate to this a lot. For me, noticing the loop is already half the battle, but it doesn't mean I can exit it.

What's helped is switching from "debugging" to "externalizing". Writing the thoughts down, like logs, makes them feel less real and less recursive. Once it's on paper, it loses some power.

One small thought exercise I picked up from The Power of Now that surprisingly works for me: when I'm deep in a rabbit hole, I take a few deep breaths and ask myself, "What will my next thought be?" For a moment everything just goes quiet, and the mind kind of resets. I've used this hack multiple times.

Another thing that matters more than I expected is just building basic habits. Exercise, walking, sleeping on time, eating properly. Nothing fancy, but having a pattern makes the bad loops less frequent.

I've also learned anxiety isn't always something you can reason away. Sometimes it's just a physical state and you have to change the input before the mind follows.

[takinola]

Writing down what you are feeling and thinking is really effective in reducing your anxiety. It does not need to be fancy or well written, just get it out of your head and unto a page.

Also helpful is developing a practice of observing yourself. Just make a mental note of what is going on. Something like "I am feeling sad", "My chest feels very tight", etc. The key here is to create some distance between yourself and these emotions.

My last recommendation is to develop acceptance. Most things lose their scariness once you accept them. Once you are fine with whatever scenario is causing you stress, it loses its sting. This can be hard to do but is extremely effective in quieting your mind.

[longfacehorrace]

Two things:

Decades of reiterating to myself it's none of the verbose semantics and socialized sensory memory my brain tries to feed me (imposter syndrome for example), but is just biochemistry habit from exposure to social memes.

4-5 mile walk as often as possible. Any less and a sense of reset does not kick in.

[codingdave]

CBT - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_behavioral_therapy

If you are building tools to help with such problems, that is great. But if you need to ask what frameworks exist, you probably should catch up on what resources are already available before jumping into your own solutions, otherwise you risk re-inventing the wheel.

[ducktastic]

Learning to regulate your nervous system. We are not chased by tigers as prey as much anymore, but when nervous system is in prolonged fight/flight/freeze states an email from your boss can trigger similar reaction

[PaulHoule]

My take is that's wrong, you don't want "mind-full-ness" but rather "mind-empty-ness".

I had a lot of anxiety when I was young and it went away, gabapentin was probably part of it, but I think also life experience was another.

I think preparation is the answer to performance anxiety. For about a month I have been "going out" as a character for doing photography and handing out business cards which has been a stupendously effective "flywheel" to the extent that students regularly flag me down. Unlike other street performers who frankly annoy people being aggressive I frequently get approached by several people a day and my answer is having the right props and a system that "works itself"

https://mastodon.social/@UP8/tagged/foxwork

I am working on improving my repertoire but the consistent theme now is that anything new is tuned up to be "self-working" so I can do it without any effort. Similarly I have had certain situations where I "lose my shit" and I focus on not getting into those situations.

[yef]

Feeling Good and/or Feeling Great by David Burns. It should be on everyone's bookshelf, imho. It has the exact step by step process that you're looking for.

[metalman]

review ,carefully , some other incident that was traumatic, but wait, not the incident itself, try, as you might, to remember how you felt two weeks after that incident.......crickets, right

my latest method to help deal with a crunch is to "spend down my larder" and burn through excess resources, and every time I come out leaner and meaner, cut, chearfull, less fucks to give