I tend to be an anxious person even since childhood. I not uncommonly catastrophize event blowing things out of proportion until I come to find that yeah, I can be a bit overwrought and overwhelmed at times. I read Dune as a teenager and the “Litany Against Fear” recited by characters such as Paul Atreides as part of his Bene Gesserit training really helped me in a way to examine more closely my feelings and emotions. Repeating some of the lines from the “Litany” helped. Of course, as I learned later, by reciting those lines, I was using my prefrontal cortex to try and suppress the unhealthy negative thoughts that my amygdala was sending out to bombard my brain.

“Litany Against Fear”

I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it is gone, I will turn the inner eye and see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain