Anxiety is on the rise. I am not sure of all the reasons, though certainly the pandemic, and social media play a part. It is one thing to try to calm yourself when feelings ramp up like the total when I fill my car with gas. It is quite another to help someone you love who is afraid. 

 

Breath is an idea that I have heard about. Long, deep inhalations paired with elongated exhalations seem to reassure the body that this is not actually an emergency. There is something about being present in your body, the one that is warm and fed and not bleeding, when your brain is erupting like the Fourth of July. 

 

Sometimes I ask Ben to name all the red things he can see, which grounds him outside of his brain. When one of his siblings used to have an overdose of feelings we would race to the tree in the corner of the yard. Music is a kind of therapy for Ben, although it confuses me when he listens to three tracks at once. 

 

A wise therapist told me that rather than having an expectation of no anxiety, she suggests that her clients build up the strategies that can handle it. That makes sense. If I try my best to coerce the weather to be sunny, I am more likely to be frustrated than if I know where the boots and umbrellas are.