The anxiety tax you're paying every day

I was scrolling X recently and was reminded again why I spend so little time on social media anymore.

I noticed that every third post was draining my energy a little bit more.

The more I scrolled, the more annoyed and sad I got.

A tiny hit of cortisol each time.

Some silly opinion.

The inane comments.

Someone's post, clearly written by AI, is getting tons more likes than ones I'd written.

I see each post like a small tax on my nervous system.

I closed the app, went for a walk in the snow, and felt immediately better.

Most of us are paying an anxiety tax every day, often without noticing.

We hand over our peace for junk that seems to stimulate us, but really drains us. And it's avoidable.

You may find yourself coming up with super clever reasons to keep doing this:

• ‘I'll stay informed’

• ‘I need this for my business’

• ‘I'm bored, and this keeps me out of trouble.’

And the tax looks like this:

• Refreshing your inbox obsessively, hoping for good news

• Checking your bank balance multiple times a day

• Monitoring how many likes your post got

• Refreshing someone's story to see if they viewed yours

• Waiting for a text back and spiralling when it doesn't come.'

Each check is like quietly admitting this to yourself:

"I need something external to tell me I'm okay."

I used to be constantly on edge thinking this way. But it’s a crappy thought that does no one any good.

Email responses, daily subscriber numbers, and validation from strangers on social media dictated my mood.

If I got nice comments from people, my day would be good.

If someone I liked unsubscribed, that day would instantly suck.

This is the opposite of resilience, and it slowly exhausted me.

When I learned that my feelings are not caused by external events but by my thinking about external events, everything improved.

An anxious mind says: "I'll feel good when X happens."

A resilient mind says: "I am okay regardless of what bulls#it happens in my life."

This can be developed because I've done it for myself.

You're not forcing positive thoughts or pretending external things don't matter.

I simply refreshed my understanding of how thoughts work and how they can hold you hostage if you continually buy into them as if they were facts.

They ain't. They're just thoughts.

When you get into the habit of avoiding those little taxes on your energy AND of seeing thoughts for what they really are…

You'll have an unfair advantage in a world that's gone mad.

If you'd like to develop an uncommonly resilient mind, my Untethered Mind course shows you exactly how.

The course guides you through a series of insights about the nature of thought that rewire how you experience stress.

This requires a specific method and an order in which these insights occur to you. The course gives you that.

Strengthen your mind today, here.

Much love,

Alex