Taking Back Your Mind: A Practical Approach to Stress & Anxiety Relief

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

A meditation teacher and fellow occasionally anxious person shares Buddhist advice for calming the stressed-out mind

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Pre-pandemic, I was at a dinner with friends. The music was pleasant, the food tasty, and the company divine. It’s rare this particular group gathers together so it felt like a real treat. At some point, the topic of politics came up (as it tends to at times), and I noticed when my friend Jonathan changed the subject. Later on, while we were exiting the restaurant, I took him aside and asked how he was doing. “I’m sorry about earlier,” he said, “but I’ve gotten so anxious, I have to watch a half hour of animal videos each night just to come back to some semblance of normal.”

I had no