A short note on meditation
I was once the Head of Box Office at Umeå International Film Festival (it does not exist anymore). This was during the 00's. The board had decided on a new ticket system for this year, and unfortunately it came with a lot of issues. Primarily it was not intended for that kind of use, but rather aimed towards businesses dealing in different events at variious venues and dates. On top of that there was problems with printing tickets on the new printers etcetera. To sum it up, I was very stressed out.
At one point I was having more or less a full blown panic attack, and felt that this is not going to work. It will all collapse. I will collapse. I did not know how to proceed. In that moment I remembered that a friend of mine had once taught me a simple meditation technique. I just sat down, counted my breath from 1 to 10 in a loop during 20 minutes, having my eyes slightly closed looking at the floor 1,5 m in front of me. Considering my state of mind, I did not have high expectations.
It was one of the most profound experiences of my life. I went from "the world is crashing down on me, the festival is going to crap and it's on my watch, it's my responsibility and now I can't breathe" to "well, this will be fine, we'll sort it out". The change was so apparent it was ridiculous. And surely enough I'm still alive.
If you ever find yourself in a similar state of mind, I highly recommend you give this a try. I can't promise the exact same result, but it's unlikely it will make you feel worse.