Meeting New People & Managing Anxiety
Article Round-Up: 2.18.24
Enjoy this week’s curated round-up of articles, podcasts, and more from the web to help you live a healthier, happier life.
Featured Thoughts: Suffering vs Pain
Wisdom From Buddhism to Help You Suffer Less
Takeaway: “Pain isn't the same as suffering. Pain is what you feel when you stub and break your toe. Suffering is what you feel when you refuse to accept the fact that your toe is broken.”
Published This Week:
How To Meet The Most Important People In Your Life
Takeaway: “All relationships are transient. Friends who stab you in the back. People you network with at a fancy party. Relatives who die. The love of your life. Everything is temporary. People come into your life for a limited amount of time, and then they go away. So you welcome their arrival, and you surrender to their departure. Because they are all visitors. And when the visitors go home, they might take something from you. Something that you can’t ever get back. And that part sucks. But visitors always leave souvenirs. And you get to keep those forever.”
8 Ways To Improve You’re Eating When You’re Busy
Takeaway: Eating out too much can be detrimental to one's health and budget. Even when making better food choices at restaurants, there is always an element of not knowing exactly what they add to the food you’re consuming.
By planning ahead, packing your own lunch, cooking in bulk, using leftovers, finding healthy options, and utilizing technology, you can eat out less on a busy schedule and still enjoy delicious, healthy food.
Just For Fun:
How Group Chats Came To Rule The World
Takeaway: You may have mixed feelings about group chats. Where else can you watch a conversation devolve from making weekend plans to debating the best flavor of chicken wings across 78 unread messages?
This article explores the rise of group chat popularity and it’s place among social circles today.
Reader Question:
I want to join a gym, but I get so anxious about the thought of looking stupid not knowing what I’m doing. What is your advice for getting over this fear?
To answer this questions, let’s explore anxiety more broadly.
Anxiety is fear about an uncertain future.
When we can’t predict what will happen, and we begin to envision a less than ideal outcome, we experience anxiety.
Two things make anxiety worse: Space and Time.
The more time you have to worry about the future, the more your anxiety grows.
The more spcae you give yourself to feel the anxiety (without doing something else), the more anxiety you will feel.
The solution is simply to do the dang thing you’re anxious about.
Because here’s the secret they don’t tell you:
Once you’re immersed in the activity that provoked the anxiety, that anxiety goes away. You’re too busy focusing on the task in front of you that you have no time or space to feel anxious.
And from that first moment forward you have less uncertainty because now you have experience.
Go join the gym.
P.S. Stop stressing about what to eat every week. There is still time to save a seat at my Meal Prep Magic workshop that is happening Saturday, Feb 24th from 11am-12pm EST. Click below to reserve your seat and you will learn how to lose body fat with more control over your food choices.