[Fred Brattain]

Speaking of anxiety - what sort of mechanisms do you employ to control it? I'm of the opinion that it cannot be suppressed, but it can be managed.

I don't think you can eliminate anxiety, because, in the final analysis, it means you CARE about what's happening. What you can do is manage it. FIRST you have to admit that it's there. That is harder for some people to do than you might think.

Second, you CAN control your autonomic reflexes (those things like breathing and heart rate) It takes practice, primarily visualization and association work which can be taught (I can go into extreme detail if someone wants). When you SMILE, your face is not tense, it is relaxed. Smiling helps, and the only thing that we do that has been proven to break a state of tension in our bodies is to laugh. I don't think the "what's the worst thing that could possibly happen here" question/method works particularly well. I think the "OK, I am UPTIGHT about this, now let's relax, consciously, relax" works much better.

In a former life, when married to the Evil Princess, I was a road musician, and would get physically ill before every performance. It just showed I CARED. It is not unnatural to feel anxious about something. But how you handle it is to recognize it, and then control what your body is doing with the anxiety, and it will go away.

Obi WunPutt