Why Trying Harder Doesn’t Make Anxiety Better
In many areas of life if you try harder, focus more, consciously push further, then performance and success improve. It is tempting to extend that logic to all areas of life, but medically that principle does not always work. In truth, only specific portions of our body’s activities are open to conscious guidance, while many other realms function below the level of daily awareness. They are “sleeping” functions. What are these? One, quite literally, is sleep; but other related “sleeping” processes include recuperation, regeneration, digestion, and metabolism. These don’t necessarily get better by trying harder. Just ask yourself: “When I am having trouble sleeping, does trying harder to fall asleep make it better?” or “If I have a stomach ache, does concentrating on the pain make it go away faster?” The answer is usually no.
Sigh, From Expansion to Duty—The End of Summer Journey into Fall
At the beginning of June we all experienced how at the beginning of summer it is hard to stay focused and responsible. This is because the whole natural world is breathing out. That expansion went a long way, and hopefully you had some opportunities to branch out, explore, and melt a little. That felt good, but just now, in the last few days, it is beginning to shift. Did you feel it? There are outer changes accompanying it—the days are getting noticeably shorter now, and if you look, the plant life has stopped growing up and out—so the whole gesture of the season is subtly different. For the plants, this cessation of growth does not mean that their activity has stopped, but it is now related more to refining the quality of what is already there. This is a time for ripening: grapes are starting to soften and sweeten, pears find a blush of color.