Helping our patients to zoom in and zoom out on thoughts and feelings to titrate stress and worry

As Family Doctors, we see a lot of people with worry don’t we?

But worry is not necessary a problem. It’s the “titration” that is the issue.

Like stress, too little stress is a problem with performance. Too much stress is also a problem with performance.

So how do we “titrate” the degree of stress or worry that is required for any given context?

With great difficulties, but we can try with a bit more emotional literacy.

Titration requires zooming in and zooming out.

The more we fused or zoom into a thought or feeling, the more we judge, stress, or worry about that.

The more we defuse, detach, or zoom out from a thought or feeling, the less we judge, stress, or worry about that. 

Mindfulness helps one to “hold space” for the thoughts and feelings without getting sucked into the “vortex”. 

Processing and working with the thoughts or feelings rather than being engulfed by them through excessive fusion or zoomed in. 

So good titration requires mindfulness along with good zooming in and zooming out functions.