“There are no wildebeest!” announced my yoga teacher the other day, as she encouraged us to place our bodies in a pose that calmed our nervous system (Quote credit – Karen Calder).

I loved this sentiment as it summed up how and why we modern folk have pickled our brains and confused our natural instincts by succumbing to worry about emails, people’s opinions, what we look like, in fact anything our weary brains can latch onto to obsess about. We feel like we are on  duty all of the time – and for most of us, that’s not true.

We’ve totally forgotten that “there are no wildebeest!” and we don’t need to be trapped in fight or flight mode – in fact, it’s highly detrimental to our wellbeing to be hypervigilant and worrying all the time.

It’s also easier said than done to snap out of such a funk, since worry is a greedy parasite. This Philosopher-in-Residence loves a simple mantra to help snap us out of a worry vortex: and I think that “There are no wildebeest!” might just be it. Put it on a post-it note or several where you’re going to encounter it repeatedly and help to hard-code the right messages.

Next fortnight I’ll be writing On Fire. Not me, just the topic, so don’t panic. Please get in touch with any particular aspects of this subject you’d like me to write about.

In the meantime,

Happy Planning

PS If you want some other free tips for your business life, check out the Working Well blog – out fortnightly on Wednesdays, courtesy of Make Me A Plan’s Productivity Expert, Pen Le Kelly. Browse the latest edition here: https://www.makemeaplan.com/news/giving-employees-a-voice/