I felt on edge for a while last night. It started with the caffeine in the sweet tea I had with my dinner and the cookies I had for dessert. That, along with watching a video of people getting angry and fighting with each other, brought up a lot of unpleasant memories and gave me a lot of nervous energy. Fortunately I was able to start feeling much better within a minute by reframing myself using a combination of life hacks that I’ve either learned from other people or discovered for myself.
After I noticed how I was feeling, I remembered a concept that I learned from Daniel Kahneman in Thinking, Fast and Slow. Kahneman discusses how we tend to overstate the importance or prevalence of something if we’re focusing heavily on it; he calls this “what you see is all there is”. Since I had just finished watching a lot of violence and hostile emotions, my adrenaline was pumping, I was ready to fight if need be, and I started thinking about potential situations in which I might resort to violence. So at some point, I reminded myself that the events in the video weren’t happening to me, which helped me calm down and avoid mentally projecting myself into those situations (I can’t remember exactly when I did this; it may have even been while I was watching the video). I then recited the words to the Mister Rogers song “What Do You Do With the Mad That You Feel?” Reciting that song out loud always makes me feel better and this occasion was no exception.
Even though I hadn’t done any grounding, breathing exercises, or even changed my position on the couch, I still felt a lot calmer after doing those few things. I then went outside and juggled in the backyard for a while to burn off some energy in a positive manner. Unicycling and doing chinups later on also helped burn off extra energy in addition to taking my mind off the video and giving me something positive to occupy my thoughts. By the time I took a warm shower to relax and feel sleepy (a trick I learned from a sleep expert on one episode of Joe Rogan’s podcast) and finished my usual nighttime routine, I was feeling wonderful. The life hacks I used worked perfectly and allowed me to quickly move past the negative emotions and the nervous energy I felt earlier. This shows that life hacks work incredibly well as long as I remember to use them. I still have difficulty with this at times but it’s getting easier to put them into practice. I hope this has been helpful for you and gives you some ideas for what to do when you feel on edge.