Niksen

  

Niksen, a Dutch term meaning to do nothing. I am not sure that it is represented in the image above but its not easy to do. My thinking here is that it's a scene where I could sit and watch the world pass by without doing anything. It pulls me in. Mentally I'm active but physically disengaged allowing the involuntary system to keep me ticking over in auto pilot. That was the thinking.

Since my anxiety problems started there have been several questions and I asked them all to the two CPNs I had visit me in the past but got no answer. They are all related. I think back to trying to leave our flat to find the keys were not there and panicking because I was trapped yet before anxiety problems surfaced I was once stuff in a flat all day in Edinburgh without a concern. Its no different from now panicking at the mere thought of a 5 minute bus journey when once I was on a bus from Scotland to the Czech Republic and back. The question which arises is why I react to situations I cannot escape from. Why do I react so strongly! I react because I engage the situation when there is no need to. I overthink it. The answer then is to do the opposite: disengage and let go. Do nothing. Niksen. That though is easier said than done.

It goes back to my CBT: don't stir the pond. In short calm is a still pond. Anxiety is a whisk of a stick. In order to restore calm we don't counter whisk but instead do nothing. This is the quickest way for the pond to settle but also the hardest to do. Who would have thought doing nothing would be so hard to do. But it is. We are reactive by nature. We are primed always to take action. It's hard to just accept and let be when something is uncomfortable. The solution is simple but that does not make it easy.