Category: health

The Anxiety Epidemic

Our mind is a prison when we focus on fear

In recent years anxiety has come to the forefront of clinical psychology. It’s being taken more seriously as each day passes and an increasingly high number of Bros get diagnosed daily with an “anxiety disorder”. Not to state that some people don’t have serious issues that need to be recognized and dealt with but many out there are becoming literal hypochondriacs; people who aren’t actually ill but rather convince themselves they are.

I’ve known a handful of close friends that have some form of anxiety and they’ve become genuinely concerned. They receive confirmation bias from a handful of “doctors” and before they know it, they can’t try new things or go certain places because “it wouldn’t be good for them”. Not to mention they’re given a cute little bottle of pills that will help take all their troubles away, oh how convenient.

Frankly, I’m tired of it all.

I know this anxiety epidemic is nothing more than one of many classic overreactions to our constantly changing environment. We live in the day of technological dominance and we’re flooded with information constantly. We garner these schema’s about society and become weary of our role in it. Of course we’re going to become slightly anxious about the world around us, especially when we go to places someone like us hasn’t gone before. However, it’s getting to a point where people won’t try something new like go to a bar or club because they’ll get too anxious and want to leave.

What the hell happened to getting out of our comfort zones? Nervousness and excitement is being mistaken for anxiety and it’s causing a massive drought in our human development. This is extremely painful to witness and undergo because as a whole we’re becoming cautious and unadventurous. We’re not striving to break out of our shells but we’re living for basic safety. No one wants thrills and uncertainty anymore, what’s that good for? They’d rather take shelter in their homes and binge watch another show on Netflix or play Call of Duty until their fingers are blistered.

We need to open our eyes not to pharmaceutical prescriptions and doctors orders but to the ever expansive world around us. There’s limitless opportunities out there for us to branch out and constantly be doing something. In this world there can be no room for our worries or doubts but only for our curiosity.

Here is our new orders, screw what our doctor says:

Get out of our house and do something that makes us uncomfortable. Stand tall in our discomfort, let it trickle down the back of our throat. Like a muscle gets used to the pain of lifting weights, we’ll get used to the pain of discomfort, and we’ll become better, more experienced. Soon enough, just like in the gym, we won’t feel pain but we’ll be exploring new things with ease. It will become second nature and we’ll finally have the lives we envision ourselves having.

I know, we’re smiling now, because we love that image. Well, don’t let it be an image.

Make it a reality.

The Underappreciated Freestyle Workout

When I was younger I played basketball for a Jewish travel team. We weren’t the most physically gifted (being a team of white Jews) so what we lacked in natural ability we made up for in hard work. We spent a lot of time practicing for basketball tournaments. A lot of time. The practices weren’t fun, but being able to stay competitive with good teams because we had practiced made the tournaments so much better. So we worked hard to play hard. And that brings me to my point.

When do we get to play in the gym?

Gym workouts are like a basketball practice. You do routine drills over and over and you start to see results. The difference is that basketball practice results translate to better basketball games, but gym workout results just translate to…heavier gym workouts. Obviously working out changes your physical appearance, but physical appearance improvements can come from so many different forms of physical activity. We love to show off our gym gains, but when do we actually get to use them?

This is why I decided to incorporate occasional freestyle workouts into my gym schedule. One day a week. These workouts are nothing like my normal ones. They don’t follow a routine. I create a random physical challenge and attempt to do it. This can range anywhere from trying handstand push-ups to climbing a tree using just my arms. Since I still love basketball, sometimes my freestyle workouts will involve dribbling a weighted ball. Nothing is off limits during a freestyle workout.

The point of these workouts is to make the gym fun. Freestyle workouts shouldn’t replace your gym routine; rather, they should serve as a supplement to it. Next time you get the chance, try a freestyle workout, and see if it feels good. Because sometimes when we practice and practice and practice and practice, we forget how it feels to let loose.