Wait until you’re on steadier ground, and then decide

Making major life decisions when you’re emotionally overwhelmed is a bad idea.

That’s like going grocery shopping during a five day fast. All those strong emotions distort your perception of reality, activate the decision making process with little oversight by the logical part of your brain, and incite you to take action on the wrong grounds.

You begin pumping a cocktail of stress hormones into your bloodstream, feeling helpless to fight back against powerful biological forces.

Meanwhile, the people in the checkout line at the supermarket are giving you strange looks.

I’m sorry sir, but we have a store maximum of ten rotisserie chickens per customer. Please come back tomorrow.

Here’s a strategy that’s healthier and ultimately leads to a lower amount of resentment and indigestion.

Wait until you’re on steadier ground, and then decide.

See if you can get out of your emotional limbic system and back into the rational parasympathetic system of your brain. Use soothing practices like deep breathing, verbal mantras or other trusted routines to reconnect with self. If possible, perform a physical act of some kind to interrupt the patters.

In my own experience with anxiety and depression I’ve found playing guitar or piano for five minutes pays huge dividends.

Because when I engage in a physical act that requires me to focus, concentrate and synchronize my body’s movement across multiple dimensions, it drains the energy from my emotional brain. Those neurons are suddenly required for my motor reflexes, and so, the anxiety struggles to compete for resources, and simply fades away.

How do you get yourself on steadier ground? What’s is your emergency anxiety plan?

Once you figure out a solid subroutine, you’ll find that the basic awareness of the psychological transition will bring you from subconscious to conscious, and help regulate your emotions. And as for that major life decision you were thinking about making, well, for now, just see if you can change your state first, where you can feel calm, relaxed and intentional.

And then you can revisit that same decision with new eyes.

You might discover that it was a terrible idea in the first and thank god you didn’t book that transcontinental flight.

Or you might realize you were onto something, and it’s actually worth exploring further, but not from a reactionary place of fear.

As my therapist once said, never decide how to respond to a crisis during the crisis itself.

Have a recovery plan in your back pocket, that way you can execute when the pressure is on.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
How could you drain the anxious energy from your emotional brain right now?