I know we're all really anxious right now. There are ways to deal with that anxiety outside of the doom scrolling that you're probably doing right now... Or whatever other avoidant behavior you're probably also engaging in.

We naturally try to avoid bad feelings, like fear and anxiety. We may spiral on what-if scenarios that let us imagine all sorts of horrible things without ever facing them.

But there are practices that suggest that the best way. Instead of trying to avoid the anxiety created by fear, we can directly face the thing we fear the most. Buddhists have a meditation on death. This is referenced in The Book of the Five Rings, which is itself referenced in the film Ghost Dog... Which... If you do need a distraction, is a really good movie.

This can be adapted to deal with any anxiety. Choose the thing that makes you most afraid. Instead of figuring out how to avoid it, or imagining yourself being saved from it, imagine it has already happened. What happens next? Is there something else scary that could happen? Imagine that happening. Keep going until there's nothing left to be afraid of.

In the end, there is death. There is the heat death of the universe. There is void, and there is nothing to fear in that void. Rather, there is beauty in the fact that we ever got to experice anything at all. In this instant, you are safe. In this instant, you have everything you need. Nothing that happens next can take away this instant from you.

So let's try it, for the anxiety many Americans are feeling...