How to Calm Your Mind: Finding Presence and Productivity in Anxious Times

The second way we can overcome burnout is by increasing what can be thought of as our “burnout threshold”—how much chronic stress needs to build up in our lives to lead us to burn out.

When content is about a subject familiar to us, it becomes more attractive to us: it’s friendlier, we feel less resistance to consuming it with repeated exposure, and we’ll probably find it more enjoyable.

The more dopaminergic habits we repeatedly engage in over time, the less dopamine our brain produces as a response. In this way, stimuli that are fun at first eventually numb us.

Turn to this list whenever you’re looking for something to do. The more substitute activities you identify, the easier this experiment becomes.

The experiment wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows, mind you: during the first two weeks, old compulsions took time to fade away, as they will for you, if you decide to do a similar experiment (and you should). At the start, you may find that your mind is restless and craves distraction. You may also notice all of the various cues that lead you to pic

Identify and adopt more well-rounded activities. This step is key and lets you replace your largest sources of chronic stress with shorter-lived sources of acute stress.

To help kick off the book, here’s a deceptively simple question for you to reflect on: How do you determine whether a day of your life went well?

We get used to what we enjoy, and abundance does not guarantee enjoyment.

In this way, objects of attention lower down on this chart don’t just lead to productivity and meaning—they help us feel happy and calm. They’re also more active and less passive.