[robg]

Very much so, so much so we built technologies to help measure and manage the physiology of anxiety/stress. I found that my physiology is much more manageable when I sleep well and exercise. From the perspective of the body, the autonomic nervous system is stress/anxiety, sleep/relaxation, and exercise. They are all the same bodily, interconnected system. Meditation and naps and mindfulness exercises work. So does simple, calming breathing exercise. All are a skill like anything else.

I know I'll never change how I respond to social settings and large crowds, and both are intimately involved in my job as a founder, but the physiological and contextual data has helped me to realize that the effects are manageable. Those effects are often common and one reason alcohol is likely such a popular sedative. But alcohol affects how well I sleep and so I gave it up. Nothing is more important in my life now than getting a good night's sleep.

I'm a neuroscientist by training and was not taught much of anything about the physiology of fight-or-flight versus rest-and-relax during my Ph.D. It's an entire area of medicine untouched by modern science. If you saw the equivalent of a therapist in 1880, opium and cocaine were the Prozac and Ritalin of their time.