If you’ve ever experienced anxiety, there’s that dreadful moment when your throat closes, and it feels like someone has placed a 10lb sack of potatoes on your chest or in your stomach, and the overwhelming emotions threaten to take you under. You can tell yourself until you’re blue in the face that it’s all in your head, but your emotions have already unplugged from your mind and are running around like the crazy kid in Robin Hood: Men in Tights (“Young Lad” played by Corbin Allred).

Even if you know what triggered Young Lad’s most recent hysterical run through the woods of your emotions, it won’t help get him calmed down and plugged back into the mainframe. There are ways to coax him back, however.

Introducing: The Happiness Distraction Kit!

The goal is to create a personalized kit that’s ridiculous, silly, comforting, and brings you joy, not unlike the Riddikulus spell in Harry Potter where Snape is dressed as Nevil Longbottom’s grandmother.

The kit could also include a reminder to breathe, feeling sunshine on your face, smelling flowers, standing barefoot in the grass, watching episodes of your emotional support show Psych because James Roday Rodriquez and Dulé Hill have great chemistry, the writing is superb, and watching it is the equivalent of putting on your most favorite comfy sweater.

On that note, you could PUT ON your most favorite comfy sweater, make a cup of tea, and snuggle in to watch whatever happens to be YOUR emotional support show, or read your emotional support book, if that’s what you’re into! This list is for you, and no one is going to judge you for reading Fourth Wing for the fourth time. You need to surround yourself with badass characters right now! Watch reels of chickens dancing. Start a gif dance off with your coworkers. The list goes on.

Don’t feel guilty for taking time for yourself, however long it takes. It’s like those masks that drop dramatically when an airplane is hitting rough turbulence. You need to put it on yourself first, so you have the support you need to be able to help others. You’re not going to be helpful if you’re passed out from a lack of oxygen. The same goes for your inner Young Lad. Picture Young Lad trying to cook dinner, run a Teams meeting, or get the kids ready for bed. It’s Riddikulus!

One of the things that works best for calming MY inner Young Lad is music. I have a playlist called Dance the Blues Away where I put all the songs that make me want to get up and move. It takes minimal effort to push play. Pretty soon the arms that were flailing around hysterically are moving for an entirely new reason, and you can bet the Macarena is one of them! I won’t list all 60+ songs, but here is a small sampling:

• Odds Are – Barenaked Ladies
• Cure For Me – AURORA
• Shake it Out – Florence + The Machine
• Groove is in the Heart – Deee-Lite
• Good Old Days – The Revivalists
• There’s Nothing Holdin’ Me Back – Shawn Mendes
• FREEDOM – Jon Batiste
• Good People – Mumford & Sons and Pharrell Williams
• The One Moment – OK Go
• Move – Saint Motel

So next time you see that potato sack looming and your emotional inner Young Lad runs away, get out your Happiness Distraction Kit and deploy the tools you need to lure him back home.