Take Yourself "Out Of" Yourself

I love my son. If he's ever sick, I get slight panic attacks and I can't perform very well in the office.

I also love my pride (hopefully not more than my son). If that gets punctured in the office, the bad feelings stick and it (sadly) comes out once in a while when I'm with family.

So there are emotions which help and emotions which don't. Whenever you get hit with a bucket of the latter, it may be wise to try disassociating yourself from the event. E.g. if your daughter is sick, and you're at the office thinking about her, you'd normally 'see' her in your mind's eye (triggering the all too common apprehension, fret and uneasiness).

But instead of visualising only your daughter, try to visualise yourself and her in one mental scene. This not only takes you 'out of' your much-troubled self, it also prepares you to act thoughtfully and carefully later on.

This principle also applies to high-powered presentations or critical conversations which fill us with dread (and a bad bout of stomach gas). Seeing yourself at the presentation or scenario takes you 'out of' the episode.

Performing 'helicopter view' disassociation helps isolate and thereby control the emotional surges which tend to accompany our mental representations of such things. It doesn't change the seriousness of whatever we're thinking/worrying about. But it certainly makes us calmer and more prepared to do whatever's necessary.