De-stressing with Bente (#17)

Learning to relax again: how do you manage to do that? Bente (23) is a freelance journalist and works as an online editor at Flow. Having experienced a near-burn-out, she’s finding her way to a life with less stress. And every Friday, she takes us with her on her journey to get there.

“I feel calm,” I say to myself gently. “Very calm.” I’m lying on the floor in my living room and trying to relax. I repeat this sentence every session, but today it doesn’t seem to be working. Because I do not feel calm at all. My thoughts are racing in all directions and I’ve already had three small panic attacks. In the museum, while shopping and while I was on the couch.

After so many sessions with my therapist, however, I now know what I need to do: Relax and, more specifically, do not analyze. But my mind doesn’t seem to have got that memo. Instead, it seems to want to play detective: trying to find out where that sense of unease is coming from and how it can be removed as quickly as possible. I call it panicking about panic.