How to Not Freak Out

This is Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. A great example of not freaking out. And also of a president’s Jr that’s not a pampered man child.

This is a scary time. Less shocking than 9/11 perhaps, but more of a creeping insidiousness. So things are rightfully troubling; there’s a palpable sense of surreality. We are being confronted with the fragility of stability and routine. Unless you are a survivor of trauma, a major illness, intense physical discomfort and/or combat, your brain may not be wired to handle a crisis.

Here’s your chance to change that.

In an actual crisis, there will be three groups of people. The first two are those full of despair or those full of delusion. Those in despair treat everything like it’s the apocalypse. Those in the delusion group are either in denial and/or fomenting conspiracy theories. It’s tempting to dive further into the psychographic profile of the folks in these two groups (hint: both groups are full of narcissists). But I want to talk about the 3rd group: the people that know how to not freak out. Right now, we need as many people as possible in this group to get through a crisis. They are the leaders, the responders, the helpers.

Here are some things you can do to be in this group:

• Balance your Feeler Brain and your Thinker Brain. These are the terms that Mark Manson uses to describe the bifurcation of the human mind. Others have called them elephant (feeler brain) and rider (thinker brain). Using Manson’s metaphor, the feeler…