"Fake it till you make it!"

Some years ago, I bought a little stocking-stuffer sized book called The Little Book of Calm by the meditation teacher Paul Wilson. He's the same person who wrote Instant Calm (which I also have). Here's a passage I happened upon this morning:

Play a Calm Role

Pretend you are calm: adopt the characteristics of a calm person. Pertend that others see you as a calm person, and in not time you'll be a calm person.

This approach is hugely helpful to me because I am not by nature particularly calm. My mother once said that I got through my childhood and youth entirely on nervous energy. I supposed some people might not think I'm calm these days either but, trust me, I'm much more calm than I used to be and strategies like the one quoted above have helped a lot.
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