Dear Girija:

You are welcome. “I have major Monday blues and this week there are some deadlines we need to meet, but I managed to not dwell too long on how we’ll achieve it. I decided I will be ok if I fail. This has been a breakthrough” – excellent job, Girija!

“Overall, there is major discomfort in letting things go” -it’s fear, isn’t it, based on the delusion that if you stop worrying about something (which you cannot change), you will lose control and bad things will happen.

“I am scared of anxiety itself… My life has always been being really afraid of something, get through it and find a new thing to be afraid of…  But the actual anxiety itself I never cared about. Now that I want to overcome anxiety, any time I sense anxiety in my body, I get more anxious… But if I look at it as just sensations, that it will go away too” – (1) Finding something new to be anxious about is the nature of anxiety for every person who is significantly anxious, (2) Focusing on the sensations of the body is like taking an elevator down from the abstract/ overthinking brain => to the concrete sensations of the body, from the abstract to the concrete: it lessens anxiety when you do that because anxiety and overthinking go together.

“About advocating for women… The approach I take is I mentor the younger women joining our team. Especially with respect to not being too vulnerable and letting others bring them down” – you are an asset to these women, thank you for helping them!

anita