I have decided to dedicate a post on Thursday to therapy, and offer you the many tips I have learned on the couch. They will be a good reminder for me, as well, of something small I can concentrate on. Many of them are published in my book, “The Pocket Therapist: An Emotional Survival Kit.“

Think long-term when you’re chatting with your financial advisor. Think short-term when you feel like hell. That’s right. Take it anywhere from 24 hours to 24 minutes to 24 seconds—depending on how bad you feel–and repeat over and over again these four words: this too shall pass.

Coupled with deep breathing, the phrase “this too shall pass” is one of the most powerful tools with which I combat anxiety. I will repeat it as many as 100 times in five minutes. Without fail, it will help me to adjust my breathing from my chest to my diaphragm. It’s a reminder, too, that no feeling or emotion is permanent, even as I try to apply super glue to some. Moreover, every thing in this world of ours is transient … which is somewhat of a bummer on the good days, but so much consolation on the bad.