As far as I know Einstein wasn’t anxious. However he had a useful take on the definition of anxiety – doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome.

If you have an anxiety problem, a part of your brain is on a mission to continue searching for a ‘solution’. But there isn’t one – not one that can be ‘solved in the analytical way.

But instead of realising there’s no solution, and stopping the process, you keep it up, don’t you? That’s the problem with anxiety; it’s a relentless, automated, turning over and over of any and every subject as if something can be solved by doing this. It’s doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome.

Each subject you come across will trigger another adrenaline spike, and you’re a hamster on a wheel.

This is the ‘insanity’ – it’s repetitive, automated and ineffective. But can you stop? No – not if you keep thinking.

You have to do something different.

Here’s the thing – anxiety is a body-based, nervous system habit.

So use your awareness to observe sensations and feelings in your body – not thoughts, images and memories. Don’t try to fix anything. Just observe. That’s all. That’s it.

You’ll notice that your breathing feels wrong, your muscles are tense and twitchy, your chest might be constricted, your guts churning, and so on; the body-processes of anxiety.

Change these (much easier), and your ‘fix-it’ brain will go quiet.