Specifically because I live in a hot climate, I’m always fighting the feeling of being suspicious of anybody I pass in the streets with a hoodie pulled up. I feel guilty because of racial profiling associated with hoodies, but gotta protect myself and my family, especially because in many cases the perpetrators of assault and murder seen in media are somebody with a hood and/or mask on.
Also by walking and breathing fast. I’ve been able to reduce my own anxiety quite a bit by forcing myself to walk and breathe more slowly.
We have a cultural acceleration of both of these body rhythms, and it’s part of the feedback loop that’s degrading our mental health.
The best part is, despite being difficult it is very possible to take control of these things. It improves our own mental health, gives other people’s brains more time to evaluate us before having to make a fight/chill decision. And when our own anxiety levels decrease, our voices get less hostile.
We’re all in this big soup of feelings together, and the whole soup is getting more anxious.
In my own experience working to slow myself down, it really takes a lot of attention and effort to alter these things that mostly run unconsciously, but the payoff is almost immediate.
I remember the first day I decided to walk slowly it was so fucking hard. I had to imagine pushing backward in my feet. It actually kind of hurt in a weird abstract way. But within ten or twenty minutes of that, muscles were relaxing around my chest and neck. Another fifteen minutes later, and I was admiring the beauty of everything around me, actually looking up for the first time in years and seeing buildings and trees I’d never noticed before.
Breathing slow, and walking slow. You can practice them one at a time, or combine them.
The more time spent applying attention and effort, the more effect. And the effects are incredible.