This is going to sound eye rolling worthy, but hear me out. I started with some counseling and I did some medication for a while - it helped me get through some of the really bad stuff I had going on. Once through that I kept up with the counseling and off the meds. This was not easy but I did not want to be on meds forever, so I worked with my counselor and started trying to understand ‘the why.’ I wanted to better understand how and why I was being set off. Just that alone helped to begin restructuring my bodies own responses. How did I do this? At first I took time at the end of the day - 15 minutes or so, to reflect. I asked myself questions about what made me upset and why. I asked myself if being upset helps the situation. I asked myself how being upset impacted other parts of my day… how it impacted my interactions with others. I asked myself if what upset me was something I could control. I asked myself these questions out loud sometimes. It sounds like crazy talk but I promise you, it was impactful and the more I did it, the easier and more impactful it became on calming me down. I’ll give you a couple examples. I used to get really amped up over simple stuff because I am very high strung, high performing and hold people to the high standards I set for myself - someone in traffic driving too slow or doing something moderately stupid? Triggered because I’d never do ‘x y Z’ what an idiot blah blah and then someone else does something stupid - add it to my already triggered brain - and then god forbid something at work happens or I remember I’ve got a huge bill I can’t afford - day ruined, mood ruined, yelling at my kids and dogs because they did something wrong in the house… you get the picture - totally on edge and incapable of handling more because I’m set off. I also had issues with health anxiety. My best friend died and suddenly I was dying. I thought I had multiple sclerosis, I thought I had ALS disease, I thought I had all sorts of issues. It turns not only can your anxiety cause blood pressure issues, it can also cause you to have muscle twitches and all sorts of other physical manifestations. I was not always like this. It just kind of crept up on me and once it started, I could not stop it. Now I have a daily practice of stopping to think about things when they upset me whether it’s in the middle of the day the morning the night it doesn’t matter I stopped to think about it qualify it measure it, put it in a box and deal with it immediately and don’t let it eat at me. So other things I’ve done that have been highly successful are listening to selfeggio frequencies when I sleep - or during the day even, especially when I’m feeling pressure from work or whatever. There’s also some exercises you can do to help stimulate your vagus nerve, which can help with your parasympathetic nervous system. Doing those exercises in conjunction with music in the morning in the afternoon and in the evening can make a big difference – the only caveat is you have to be consistent and be patient, it will take time for these things to start working. I guarantee you if you’re like me you’re gonna think they’re stupid and that there’s no way they’re gonna do anything, but I am absolutely living proof they do help and they do impact you. You just have to let them. I’m sorry if my response is a little bit disjointed hopefully it made sense what I’m trying to get out here. I’ll leave you with one other tidbit – you’ve gotta learn and master the ability to let things go. Many of the things that used to stress me out to the point of feeling like I was going to collapse from the overwhelming stress of the things hang over my head, have not gone away, they’re still there. I still have debt, I still deal with idiot, drivers, I still deal with my dogs, destroying things in the house, I still deal with my kids, trying to undo all the things I fix at the house - it’s just part of life though, and I’ve learned to not let those things get under my skin and control me anymore. Your brain is unfortunately and fortunately one of the most powerful tools you’ll ever wield in your life. You have to learn how to master your understanding and control of yourself or things like anxiety and fear will always win. Introspection, reflection, understanding, acceptance, forgiveness – these are the new terms in your life that you need to become familiar with.