Enthusiasm in 2022

During this pandemic we’re all growing so tired of, anxiety aggravates me way more than my little brother ever has. “Mom, he won’t stop _____ me.” Mom isn’t around to scold him and rescue me, so I learned to rescue myself and create some laughs. But this anxiety nuisance is out of hand. No one applies the brakes and rescues me and I seem powerless in coping.

If you tune into Ted talks, you have heard Brene Brown, a sociologist with a knack for plugging into our emotions. I’m betting others have ordered a book or two or three after melting at her understanding of our complex emotional responses. I have not ordered her latest - Atlas of the Heart - but I will since hearing her latest interviews.

She and research cohorts have identified 87 emotions. Initial responses from individuals like me named only the few ‘comfortable’ ones like happiness, sadness, anger and fear. Familiarity doesn’t help us cope, and ignoring them won’t make worrisome ones go away. There are side effects, and some of them can be nasty.

Like anxiety. I’m having anxiety about my anxiety about events looming in my mind. Maybe you’ve felt the same way - wondering what the next crisis will be, when it will hit and how close to home it will strike. Sorta like fate has thrown out a bunch of superballs ricocheting so fiercely that we’ve started dodging them instead of trying to catch them.

Turns out there is a name for that - anticipation anxiety. Were I to adopt a new year’s resolution, it would be to flip that to expectation enthusiasm. Time to bring my optimism out of hiding and march toward cool people, places and events - ones that make me smile - so I can enjoy the year 2022 and pass the smiles around.