Reid Wilson Quotes

If we were not so-single-minded about keeping our lives moving and for once could do nothing, perhaps a huge silence might interrupt this sadness of never understanding ourselves and of threatening ourselves with death. Perhaps the earth can teach us as when everything seems dead and later proves to be alive. — Pablo Neruda, from “Keeping Quiet,” transl. Alastair Reid, Poetry of Presence: An Anthology of Mindfulness Poems, eds. Phyllis Cole-Dai & Ruby R. Wilson (Grayson Books, 2017)

I’ll become stronger by purposely facing what I am afraid of. It’s OK that I’m anxious right now. I can handle these sensations. I can handle this uncertainty. I want this anxiety. I want this uncertainty. Love the mat. Run toward the roar.

The original Romeo, Coby Reid, had driven his car into a tree only a few hours earlier, though no one was sure if it was on purpose or not, and no one seemed interested in knowing for certain. Since Coby was not dead but merely in the hospital with a broken collarbone and a collapsed lung and spectacular damage to his wonderful smile, the cast and crew decided that the show need not be canceled but rather recast. That Buster, the stage manager, had memorized every line of the entire play seemed to make the decision fairly obvious. That his sister, two years his senior and in her final performance as a high school student, would be playing the role of Juliet was seen as only a minor inconvenience.

Anthropology is as important as statistics. Understanding the individual is as important as counting them.

The painful fact was, we knew in July if we could get 300 beds, we could end it. By November, we needed 3,000 beds,” he recalled later.

Every object in the world (including you and me) will keep doing what it’s currently doing until something forces it to change.

The more massive the body, the more it will resist change. So a greater force will be required to move it in a different direction.

Scooter Libby/Valerie Plame debacle—wherein Valerie Plame, aka Valerie Wilson, was outed as a CIA operative by the State Department—covered that morning’s front page of The New York Times.

Anxiety is a method of seeking two experiences: certainty and comfort. The problem is that it wants these two outcomes immediately and continually,” according to Reid Wilson and Lynn Lyons, the authors of Anxious Kids, Anxious Parents.8 To give children the certainty and comfort they’re seeking requires that we rescue them from scary situations. And every time we rescue, we perpetuate the belief that they need to be rescued. It also makes them more demanding the next time.

Every previous outbreak had happened in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon and Uganda. Those countries were 2,000 miles away from Guinea, a virtual world apart.

More people died because of Ebola than from Ebola,” Tom Frieden said later. “It collapsed the health care systems.

A minor physical problem is producing a few symptoms. You become introspective and oversensitive to these sensations and then become anxious. Your heightened awareness and concern produce an increase in discomfort. If this continues, you can turn an insignificant physical problem into major psychological distress.

When a person suffers from anxiety attacks, one of the greatest obstacles to recovery can be the fear that these attacks are the indication of a major physical illness—and in rare cases that is true. But most often, when a person continually worries about physical illness, that kind of worry intensifies or even produces panic attacks. In other words, the less you worry, the healthier you will become.

The most destructive thing you can do when faced with panic attacks is to steadfastly believe that your physical discomfort means that you have a serious physical illness, despite continued professional reassurance to the contrary. That is why it is essential that you work with a physician whom you can trust until he or she reaches a diagnosis.

If you remain fearfully convinced that you have a physical ailment, even when there is a consensus to the contrary among the professionals who have evaluated you, then you can be certain of one thing: your fear is directly contributing to your panic episodes.

Imagine entering the event and purposely let your anticipation generate some anxiety and doubt. As you notice your anxiety, practice accepting and wanting those feelings. “OK, I’m imagining myself standing in line at the bank, and now I’m anxious. Really anxious! Yikes, this is scary! But…good. I want this. Right this second I am practicing. This counts!” Linger with your anxiety. Don’t be in a rush to escape the feeling. Hang out with your distress. Give your body-&-mind time to respond to your message of, “I can handle this anxiety, and I want this.

When you hear yourself say, “I’m dizzy; I could faint!” say something like, “That’s a good, anxiety-provoking thought. I want that thought, too.” Don’t do anything with the thought. Don’t embellish it or encourage it. Don’t talk yourself out of it. Notice it and accept it as an expected fearful thought in such a situation. Then wait for the next threatening thought or feeling.

The point is this: Panic erodes your basic trust in your body. Panic wins control over you by convincing you to doubt your body’s natural unconscious monitoring system. Panic says, “Keep watching, keep listening, keep monitoring.” These are the destructive messages of panic. If you are constantly on guard over your body’s sensations, you will need to start thinking about your body in a new way.

What if, at the time of a panic attack, you could convince yourself to rely on that same unconscious to help you manage your body’s sensations? I can guarantee that when you learn this skill you will be back in the driver’s seat. You will no longer be letting panic have control, nor will you be forcing your conscious mind to do all the work.

The unconscious is ninety-nine percent brilliant in its ability to constantly direct the body toward health.

After the panic response is established, the mind stops working creatively in your favor. Instead it seems to be set on “automatic pilot” and stops seeking out solutions. The mind focuses on the problem instead of on its solution.

When you walk into a situation that is similar in time or place to one in which you previously had a panic attack, the image of that last time rises up in your mind. This image alone can produce the same muscle tension and the mind can interpret it to mean “trouble.” Instead of paying attention to all of its many problem-solving options, the mind focuses on its negative images of your past failure. In turn, you begin to notice your tense muscles and all of your other disturbing body sensations.

A panic attack may completely surprise you—consciously. But unconsciously a step-by-step process has taken place prior to your physical sensations: Step 1: When you enter a situation that is associated with panic, the brain registers this stimulus. Step 2: It interprets the meaning of this stimulus as “harmful” or “dangerous.” Step 3: On the basis of your memory of past experiences, your brain doubts your ability to cope effectively. Step 4: It therefore selects “emergency” as its default response, compounded by “anxiety” (since it doubts that you will cope well). Step 5: The brain enlists the body in the Emergency Response. After enough of those experiences, you develop a conditioned response, meaning the brain takes less and less time to evaluate each new situation. Instead, it automatically selects the Emergency Response. You have created a “well-worn path.” The mind then takes that specific threat and generalizes it. This explains why people who have their first panic attack in a car may gradually develop a fear of any form of transportation. The brain stops screening the stimulus. If a person has a panic attack in a restaurant, bank, or other closed space, eventually the mind might say, “All such situations are dangerous.

the more you fight the uncomfortable sensations directly, the stronger they seem to grow. The more you run from panic, the faster it seems to chase you. The more you avoid panic-provoking situations, the more panic controls your life. If we place ourselves on guard, waiting and watching for the next signs of trouble, we are inviting panic to return sooner. How? By establishing a special relationship with panic, a relationship of opposites.

The single most important way to win over panic attacks is to respond to them from a different point of view. To get better, you don’t struggle with anxiety, you don’t try to get rid of the uncomfortable sensations, you don’t avoid threatening situations. You choose to take a different attitude toward them. With this new attitude in place, you will know what actions to take.

They worry because their brain is demanding closure on a specific issue. Their mind says, “This is how it must turn out for me to feel secure. And I must feel secure. Do I know for certain it will turn out this way?” It is as though they require a one-hundred percent guarantee that they will encounter zero risk. That is simply too much to ask of life.

OK…I’ve been to the emergency room twelve times in the last two years. One hundred percent of those visits have been false alarms. I know that I suffer from panic attacks, and this is what they feel like, too. Let me take a few calming breaths, relax and wait a few minutes. I’ll begin to feel better.” The reassurance lasts all of five seconds. Then you start again. “But I don’t know. I don’t know for certain. If this is a heart attack I could die! Right now! There’s always a chance.

By making the decision to accept the possibility of a negative outcome, you circumvent the requirement for absolute certainty of your future comfort and safety.

Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) refers to a complex of symptoms, including panic, occurring the days just before menstruation.

As soon as you declare it a test, your body is going to secrete adrenaline, because you will be saying to yourself, “Uh-oh. I’d better do well,” while you simultaneously imagine yourself failing. That process will cause you to feel anxious. The more you set up future events as tests, the more you are going to feel anxious.

Never view a future task as a test of your progress or of your ability to overcome panic.

When you decide that all your experiences are practice, you are in effect saying that you are both willing and able to learn from each experience.

Practice accepting and wanting any anxiety that you notice. Remind yourself that you are looking for frequency, intensity, and duration of distress. Linger in the moment of being anxious and uncertain. Give your body-&-mind time to respond to your message of, “I can handle this, and I want this.” Don’t be in a rush to escape your feelings; hang out with your distress. And don’t get derailed by your negative thoughts. Notice them, accept and want them, allow them to hang around, but don’t bother reacting to them. Then refocus on your task. Remind yourself that you can cope with whatever happens.

Remember that you win over panic by not resisting. Be patient and you will eventually get a spontaneous insight. It might sound like this: “Hey! Four out of the last twelve times when I said, ‘I can handle this; I want this,’ and really meant it, my anxiety just faded away. Another five times I stayed anxious, but I handled it fine. It didn’t leave, and I didn’t freak out. Maybe it really is all about how I respond. Cool.

You purposely choose to feel uncomfortable and uncertain within your threatening situations: “I want this.” • You choose to linger with your anxiety and uncertainty instead of escaping. • You notice your negative and fearful thoughts without getting caught up in them. You accept them without getting rid of them.

Big Announcement! There Are Different Ways of Talking to Worry

Don’t Panic by Reid Wilson.

When faced with a challenge (be it a hurricane or a struggling business or a reluctance to start writing), we must decide to act and then we must act. We should perceive our worries as an indication that we should meet our challenges head on, cut right to the heart of them, and take action. Otherwise, we’ll be in the aftermath of the storm, sitting and staring at that old tree that’s collapsed onto our patio, and asking, “Well, what now?