I’m sure I’m afflicted by a lot of cognitive biases, but I like this list of 9 common biases, because of the short advice on how to overcome them. I’ll admit that I struggle with the halo effect — “when your overall impression of someone is influenced by one part of their character” — but I’m working on it and trying to appreciate humans in all their complexities. — CD
I love this small, illustrated handbook for easing anxiety: Get Out of My Head: Inspiration for Overthinkers in an Anxious World. It has become a roadmap to help me navigate out of my anxieties and distortions, and it’s so much more magical than it is clinical. You can pick it up and start anywhere in the book at any time, and you’ll find playful ways to reframe your thinking and easy actionable advice to try now. My favorite part of the book is that it comes with an even smaller pocket book inside, with soothing illustrations, that acts as a visual tool to help you, “when something is wrong, but nothing is wrong.” — CD
Writing instructor David Perell wrote about the 50 ideas that changed his life. Here’s one: “Competition is for Losers: Avoid competition. Stop copying what everybody else is doing. If you work at a for-profit company, work on problems that would not otherwise be solved. If you’re at a non-profit, fix unpopular problems. Life is easier when you don’t compete. (Hint: don’t start another bottled water company).” — MF
The lifehacking guru Tim Ferriss compiled 17 questions he frequently asks himself, which I find useful to review myself every now and then. They are meant to help ensure that I spend my time on the right things. You can download them as a “17 Questions That Changed My Life” PDF. — KK
I’ve developed this small habit of editing my internal monologue when I catch myself saying something negative or absolute. If the thought “This sucks — it’s never any fun,” pops into my head, I immediately correct myself with “This sometimes sucks. It might be fun.” If I don’t autocorrect myself I stay stuck in a negative mood, but when I do, I let go of the negative outcome and just roll with whatever. I first came across this trick here: This Small Change in Your Language Can Help Downplay Negativity. — CD
This simplistically designed website lets you quickly swipe through cards with kind suggestions meant to uplift your spirits when needed. It works well on both your phone and desktop (on your desktop you press spacebar instead of swiping). — CD
This Ultimate Cheatsheet for Critical Thinking is a set of questions to ask yourself when you encounter new (or revisit old) ideas and information. It’s useful for that, but I’m using it to help develop characters and scenes for creative writing. — MF
I tend to use meditation to help me slow down and ease into discomfort or when I feel my anxiety flaring up, but I came across this 30-minute Life Visioning meditation on my Aura app and felt completely transformed after it. At first the breathing exercises and noises felt hokey, but it helped to put me into an almost hypnotic relaxed state, and then the narrator took me down a dark tunnel to meet my “future self” and I was able to see her so clearly! I was so moved by this whole practice. I’ve done it three times since, and each time I discover some new desire or goal that is buried within me. — CD
Every once in awhile I will be scrolling through Reddit and come across a short reminder or tip post that simply says: Relax your jaw. I’m not sure at what moment it became second nature to me, but I noticed in the last week I’ve started relaxing my jaw at the first sign of anxiety or discomfort, which is great, because I then check-in with my entire body and relax my shoulders, and just that in itself is an instant mood booster. So I would like to pay it forward with a reminder to relax your jaw. — CD
This episode of the Tim Ferris podcast with Psychotherapist Esther Perel was very timely and enlightening. Perel shares templates for navigating the tactically challenging situations that relationships might be facing at this moment in time, as well as phrases for deepening the conversation with loved ones. For example, with those who are prone to answering “great” when you ask how they are doing, a good follow up question would be “how are you sleeping?” This is a wake-up call for me because I am one of those people who feels like I am not allowed to complain when there is a lot to be grateful for, but in her words, “You can feel humble, you can feel thankful to things, but you can’t feel great in this moment because if you’re feeling great in this moment, you’re detached. You’re disconnected.” And that warrants a moment of acknowledgement. Another tip I pulled from this that was inspired by a past episode with Brené Brown was to each morning give your partner a heads up of where your emotional/energy level is at with a percentage of how full your tank is. So if I don’t sleep well or am feeling cranky, I will let my husband know I’m at 20%, so please tread lightly. — CD
My inbox has an abundance of newsletters and emails with advice for the current situation, as does my newsfeed. I feel connected, grateful and overwhelmed. Here are the links I found most helpful and am happy to share:
Giant list of shared ideas for quarantine/social distancing with kids
20 journaling prompts I swear by to get you out of your head
How to Not Let the Coronavirus Steal Your Mental Health While You’re At Home (This was emailed to me by my therapist who got it from a professional/therapist networking online group and was told that it could be shared) — CD
According to this Fast Company article, patience is hackable by thinking as concretely as possible to perceive wait times as shorter. For me, what has always worked without fail is my secret grocery-store shopping mantra: “I am zen. I am floating.” And then I just imagine myself floating through the store, not bumping my cart into other people or rushing to get past them, and smiling softly like a weirdo. But it works! And when irrational anger starts to rise up, I think about this quote by Thich Nhat Hanh, “Three hundred years from now where will you be and where shall I be?” – CD
Anne-Laure of Ness Labs has a great post on the exercise of writing your own eulogy as a blueprint for your future. The process of writing down the exact values and accomplishments you want to be remembered for can provide clarity as to the small steps you can take today to create that narrative. Her post provides example questions to help you draft a eulogy and it’s up to you to work backwards to take action. I also spent about 25 minutes using this free step-by-step guide to writing my own obituary (angstrom.life/goals) and when I was done I was given a mission statement to create the imaginary legacy I want to leave behind. My life goals are very simple: write more poetry, which is something I yell at myself everyday, and to perfect my poor drawing skills so that I can create the stories that won’t stop gnawing at me. — CD
I consider myself well-versed in figuring out people’s love languages, but I was surprised to find out that there was such a thing as an apology language. I took this free quiz and discovered that I am most receptive of apologies that “Accept Responsibility” meaning simply saying “I was wrong.” The other types of apology languages are “Genuinely Repent,” “Expressing Regret,” “Make Restitution,” and “Request Forgiveness.” — CD
This free iOS app called Breathwrk makes it incredibly easy to start a consistent habit of daily breath exercises. I schedule to practice different methods of breathing for different times of the day. Like “Awake” to get energized at 7AM, and “Unwind” to reduce stress at 5PM. This is one of the few apps from which I enjoy receiving reminder notifications. What I appreciate the most about this app is that there are different sounds played for the duration of breathing in and exhaling, and this lets me just close my eyes and focus on breathing. — CD
Sometimes my obstacle is when I’ve taken something personally that shouldn’t be. Like when my husband asks me if I unloaded the dishwasher “yet” and I interpret it as an all-out attack on my productivity. My therapist has advised me to listen to the request, not the tone. But that’s easy to forget. Here is a good printout to keep nearby if you also struggle with the same thing. — CD
Julie Zhuo, Product Design VP at Facebook, asked “What’s your most important life lesson that you wish you learned ten years earlier?” and Twitter answered. My favorite replies were “Better understand your inner child issues so that your subconscious becomes conscious.” — @AmandaMGoetz, and “The grass is always greener because it’s been fertilised with bullsh*t. Enjoy what you have.” — @pTah_XV. Here’s the full thread. — CD
One of the most effective visualization techniques to quickly destress is to imagine I am a mountain and every annoying, stressful thing is just floating past me like clouds or momentary bad weather. I remind myself that I am a mountain and my purpose is to just sit and be myself and nothing can sway me. You can find a lot of these “mountain meditations” on Youtube. Here is a short example I like and found on Aura. — CD
Tiny Spells is a daily self-care email that feels like it’s sent from your best friend. Every day Joan Westenberg sends out three simple things you can do for yourself to make your day and self better, like reminders to take a stretch break, make the doctors appointment you’ve been avoiding, buying yourself fresh flowers, or finding something that makes you laugh. It has a magical effect and I look forward to it every day. — CD
Earlier this week book author Caroline Moss tweeted, “If you go to therapy quote tweet this with the best thing you learned at therapy that way everyone else can get free therapy.” The hundreds of replies are filled with excellent advice. Examples:
Don’t react. Sit with it until you know what you feel. Sit with it.
It’s ok to not be busy and to not offer to others a reason I do or don’t do each thing.
Don’t beat yourself up for not knowing things that you hadn’t learned yet.
Anxiety causes me to put things off a lot and in group therapy we worked on “the 15 minute rule”. If something feels impossibly overwhelming I set a timer to work on it for 15 minutes and that takes away that “I’m about to swan dive into a bottomless hole” feeling.
The only things I owe people are straightforwardness and kindness.
— MF