The Panic Button Book, Relieve Stress & Anxiety Whenever They Strike, by Tammi Kirkness, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2020

           For as long as I can remember I was an overthinker, over analyzer, and perfectionist.  It turns out that these attributes formed part of something referred to as high-functioning                 anxiety.  I was a master at striving for results, feeding off recognition, and looking like I was blitzing life - all the while turning on a nervous energy that simply wouldn't' shift.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Tammi Kirkness

Feel your heart racing?  If you could pocket a first-aid kit for those times - a presentation to the team at 8:00 tomorrow, your annual performance review, an appointment for your first vaccine dose, or even license renewal at the Registry of Motor Vehicles - this little book would be it!  The Panic Button Book grew out of a list of anxiety-causing scenarios the author created post melt-down, in a calmer state of mind.

Take the heart-racing event.  Author Kirkness offers four simple exercises to slow it down - 

1.  Straighten your spine

2.  Put your shoulders back

3.  Breathe in through your nose.  Breathe out through your mouth.  Repeat three times

4.  Inhale deeply.  Exhale all overactivity in your chest.   

Drawing on her own life experiences, the author also includes other useful calming techniques such as former US Navy SEAL Mark Devine's box breathing and the "Karate Chop" technique developed by Gary Craig to address social unsteadiness.  From her own notes Ms. Kirkness has organized her recommendations into over fifty sections asking the crucial questions and providing answering exercises for further practice.  She believes that anxiety and how it limits us is worth fixing, and she offers us very useful quick exercises to help unfreeze.  Particularly useful as we come back out of lockdown still mid-pandemic, The Panic Button Book will fit very nicely in that little pocket in your backpack, right down where you used to keep the Zoloft. 

Patricia E. Moody

FORTUNE magazine  "Pioneering Woman in Mfg" 

IndustryWeek IdeaXchange Xpert

A Mill Girl at Blue Heron Journal, on-line resource for business thought-leaders and decision-makers,  patriciaemoody@gmail.com