having a freeze response to stress is so funny in the context of normal adult stressors. millions of years of evolution are trying to tell me that the email will not find me if i stay very still and do nothing
do you ever have such a monumentally bad brain day that you just take away its mic?
like…… buddy, you are producing insanely bad thoughts today and believing them, I’ll take it from here, get off the stage
I don’t know if this is asked in earnest or just a thought but since I’m waiting for my therapy session, here it goes
The method I worked out for myself is to pretend that there’s this personal assistant (Barbara) to my brain. The thoughts and emotions are clients who either come to pitch an idea or to demand attention from the boss.
Most are important and relevant thoughts; but sometimes they come at the wrong time (if I wake up at night worrying about a task I just imagine Barbara in her pyjamas groggily telling the thoughts to come during office hours).
And some clients (mean thoughts, false beliefs, anxiety jabs) I just imagine as panicked or rude customers that need to be treated as such. You are not getting audience with the boss until you can state your purpose calmly and clearly. If you insist on being rude, I’ll throw you out.
It helps you separate yourself from the thoughts and gives you time to evaluate if they need to be acted on. My therapist loves Barbara
the world is running out of glassblowers and yet you want to become a fucking doctor
One of the most jarring moments of my university education was in a physics class when I was given a device that measures gravity and was told “this cost the university sixteen thousand dollars, but the only glass blower in the world who could make the glass springs inside it died so it’s literally irreplaceable. If you drop it those springs will shatter. Go fuck around with it for a day and take some measurements”
this is going to be difficult -> i am capable of doing difficult things -> i have done everything prior to this moment -> this difficulty will soon be proof of capability
ALT
