The Art of Not Panicking

"Would you have a great empire? Rule over yourself." (Publilius Syrus)

It feels like I'm in stasis at the moment. A four-week period of suspension brought about by the reality of having to wait for something. In mental health studies, the word suspension can mean a few things:

A Coping Mechanism: It can help avoid being overwhelmed by emotions such as anxiety or anger.

A Reflective Practice: It is employed in mindfulness to observe one's thoughts without instantly accepting or reacting to them, transitioning from "I think" to "I notice I am having a thought".

A Way To Handle Ambiguity: It enables the mind to embrace, rather than dread, times of uncertainty or insufficient information. 

The term suspension in higher cognitive function often refers to a proactive, intentional mental action rather than a passive, involuntary state of confusion. Although it is sometimes used to describe a forced stop in cognitive function due to fear or trauma, it usually implies a deliberate mental process.

I'm not entirely sure that the relative calm I find myself in at the moment is due to a deliberate choice on my part, because mostly I feel that I am drifting, going with the flow, in a manner of speaking, and simply waiting things out. However, given the volume of literature and podcasts I have consumed over the last period, I have considered the possibility of subliminal messaging. In psychology, subliminal messages are sensory stimuli (visual or auditory) that are below the level of conscious perception. These subtle cues, or 'primes', are intended to be picked up by the subconscious mind, possibly affecting attitudes, emotions, or behaviours without the one's conscious awareness. This is very interesting to me because it means my effort has not been for nought, and that all the texts I have covered are beginning to take a foothold. This is good news because the stasis... the inactivity that comes with it... continues to include reading, and I still haven't managed to read a full book. With that in mind, I've relied on Ryan Holiday's wonderful The Obstacle is the Way for this post. It won't be the last time I revisit his book.

"If someone tells you they have counted every grain of sand in the desert, believe them. If they tell you they have counted every drop of water in the ocean, believe them. But, never believe anyone who tells you they have conquered the mind." (Unknown)

I included the above quote in an early post titled Before we get to the root of the problem, let's talk a little about depression and mindfulness. My Dad often referenced the quote, and I think it's a very accurate description of the challenges of calming the mind. Despite my seemingly calm few weeks, remaining present is an ongoing challenge. I revisited Part 1 of Ryan Holiday's The Obstacle is the Way because it focuses on perspective, and I needed some reinforcement.

"It is not things that upset us, but our judgments about things" (Epictetus)

"The Domestification of One's Emotions"

It's not always what it seems.

Ryan Holiday writes about perspective as the crucial skill that decides if events will defeat us or develop us. In his Stoic-influenced writings (including The Obstacle is the Way), perspective is a recurring theme.

Holiday relies heavily on Epictetus, driving home the point that events themselves are neutral but we assign meaning to them, and by pausing before reacting, we reclaim our power. According to the author, perspective is the mental discipline that turns chaos into clarity, setbacks into strategy, and pain into progress.

This week, I looked more closely at three of his sub-chapters relating to perspective:

• Control Your Emotions

• Practice Objectivity

• Alter Your Perspective

"Uncertainty and fear are relieved by authority. Training is authority. It's a release valve."

I'm between a relatively worrying blood test result and a pending MRI or CT scan. I've been making a concerted effort to keep my wits about me, and I suppose that this has been like a release valve because while there's this underlying 'thing' on my mind, I haven't bowed to anxiety. My emotions are under control, and there hasn't been any overthinking or spiralling. I know, logically, that an MRI or CT scan could yield positive or negative results, but I'm not thinking of either. Holiday writes about stillness, "...the kind of equanimity and self-command that comes with the absence of irrational or extreme emotions. Not the loss of feeling altogether, just the loss of the harmful, unhelpful kind." The thing is, I can't quite tell what I feel. I floated the notion of apathy around for a brief time before reminding myself that I'm certainly interested in the outcome of the results and I am concerned about my overall health.

"Real strength lies in the control or, as Nassim Nicholas Taleb put it, the domestication of one's emotions, not in pretending they don't exist."

Perhaps what I'm feeling is an underlying fear, albeit subtle. Fear of the unknown and the dreaded 'what if?' My subconscious mind has many years of etched neural patterns relating to fear but they're battling with my newfound knowledge of a better path - one that can and does look at things objectively. I'd like to believe that.

"Don't let the force of an impression when it first hits you knock you off your feet; just say to it: Hold on a moment; let me see who you are and what you represent. Let me put you to the test." (Epictetus)

Contemptuous Expressions

Ryan Holiday's sub-chapter, Practice Objectivity opens with the above quote. I'm beginning to understand why he loves Epictetus so much. That's logic, right there.

Pain is the body's way of telling you that things are not quite right. I have persistent, sometimes excruciating pain on my right side. Preliminary blood tests showed an anomaly in my pancreas and elevated tumour markers. It's hard to argue with that. Logic tells me that something is going on because there is evidence of it. Objectivity allows me to surmise that it could be a minor issue that requires a little digging.

Practicing objectivity in mindfulness involves learning to observe thoughts, emotions, and sensations without instantly accepting them as true, resisting them, or incorporating them into one's identity. One can feel fear without adding a story to it. Go ahead and think but recognise that the thoughts are not reality. Identify where you feel this in your body because it grounds awareness in sensation instead of thought. Let it pass without trying to solve it.

I can't solve what's going on in my pancreas - not until I have that MRI or CT scan, at which point I have to take advice from doctors. That said, there's nothing I can do and worrying isn't going to change anything. This isn't apathy, it's clarity. Objectivity is feeling without identification. It's not dissociation, lack of emotion or suppression. Mindfulness traditions refer to objectivity as liberation through clarity and at this point, I'm as objective and clear as I can be.

As an aside, I'd never heard of contemptuous expressions until reading The Obstacle is the Way. In Stoic philosophy, contemptuous expressions are not related to arrogance or belittling others. They involve perceiving things so clearly that they no longer have the power to unsettle you. The Stoics employed this method to diminish the undue significance of insults, status, pleasure, fear, and even pain ☺️. I hope you like and appreciate this as much as I do.

"Remember: We choose how we'll look at things. We retain the ability to inject perspective into a situation. We can't change the obstacles themselves - that part of the equation is set - but the power of perspective can change how the obstacles appear."

Perspective is Everything

Alter Your Perspective, the third (and final) chapter for this week's blog encourages us to change the way we see things. What I liked most about this one is that it mentions cognitive psychology and its emphasis on perspective being all-important. This is, of course, a keen interest of mine.

Cognitive psychology and perspective examine how the mind's interpretations, rather than the events themselves, influence our emotions, decisions, and actions. Simply put: perspective is the lens, and cognition is the mechanism that constructs it.

Instead of experiencing reality directly, we experience a filtered reality. Between an event and our reaction rests an attached meaning, a prediction and/or an interpretation. If we can change this process, we can change our experience. The insertion of simple acknowledgment between an event and our reaction, alters the outcome. Yes, it's there but I'm not going to make more of it.

Mental models, the internalised frameworks or internal representations that are built from experiences and beliefs shape our perception. Our brains use schemas (or shortcuts) built from past experiences and form the neural pathways I mentioned earlier. As Joe Dispenza writes about in Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself, Evolve Your Brain, and The Placebo Effect, these schemas/neural pathways can be altered.

I have been wanting to focus on cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) for some time, though I have discovered that almost all of the books I've covered (and the podcasts I have listened to) involve a degree of it. I do, however, believe that Padesky and Greenbergers workbook, Mind Over Mood will stand me in good stead. I bought it more than a year ago and have dusted it off and placed it on my desk.

When CBT meets mindfulness, it asks you to think accurately. It teaches you to notice the thought, name the pattern, look for evidence and then choose a more balanced interpretation.

Cognitive psychology explains that perspective is not reality—it is a mental creation and anything created can be analyzed, adjusted, and modified. Research shows that a flexible perspective leads to less anxiety and depression, improved decision-making, and better emotional regulation and overall health. All things considered, it sounds like a no-brainer.

This overlap between cognitive psychology, Stoicism and mindfulness has been revelatory. It's simultaneously assuring and inspiring, and every time I read something that reinforces what I have already learned, it strengthens my resolve. I'm not sure when but I will read a full book again soon.

---

Random Quote

"Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth." (Marcus Aurelius)

---

#anxiety #depression #mentalhealth #mentalhealthawareness #wellness #selfcare #selfhelp #mindfulness #youarenotalone #thereisnostigma

---