Weekly Human #17
Silence is energy #BestOfLinkedIn
As I struggle to understand the noise, I realize all I was after was the quiet lack of it. So, I breathe in and out, I listen to the sound, I focus on a single spot, I close my eyes, and I open them. By now, I grasp the idea of being present - it is an intention, a decision.
This article was initially posted on LinkedIn in February 2026.
The moment I talk about this idea, I feel like I’m preaching. As if writing these lines is there to feed my ego. So, the intention loses its volume, as if it’s dissipating. And yet I think it’s important to talk about it: the mechanism behind what mindfulness does to me.
The idea of the day
So this week I’m writing very short. The idea: how mindfulness fights fear.
I’ve chosen English yet again, just because it felt nice the last time. Also, because I feel one needs to practice often if the objective is to keep the second language fresh and handy.
As I was heading to Brussels for the first in-person meeting of the EACA AI Task Force, I sensed the proper amount of anxiety. I say proper, because I look at fear as pure energy in motion, and thus I feel it’s a proper amount as long as it helps me act.
Act I did, when I decided to accept my anxiety as an announcer that something important I really care for was about to happen. After 18 months of working together as a team, but only online, specialists in communication from all over Europe were going to meet and discuss how AI is changing the communication industry. Of course, I was going to feel anxious about it. Excited, yes, happy, curious - yes. But also, anxious.
So, instead of anything else, I decided to use ACT techniques and Mindfulness exercises to focus myself into the proper mood for such an occasion. For example, the flight turned into a 2-hour deep rest ritual. The first day in Brussels delivered valuable, mindful leisure hours that would continue to set me up for the next day’s event.
The in-person meeting was great. I’ve learned a lot about AI in comms; I was part of a panel of amazing specialists; I discovered a lot about how using AI agents for good can take us to a whole new level of understanding society. And much more. I got a lot of great insights at the meeting, but this newsletter is not about that.
When I left Brussels, I felt genuinely balanced. As if everything that happened was perfectly normal. I completely forgot I ever was anxious.
The exercise of the day
Let fear move, don’t make it talk
Duration: 3–6 minutes
Context: use it right before something that matters (a meeting, a flight, a hard conversation)
Step 1 -> Locate (30–60 sec)
Close your eyes. Find where fear sits in your body. Chest? Throat? Stomach? Don’t name it “fear.” Just notice pressure, heat, tension, vibration.
ACT logic: you’re shifting from conceptual self to observing self.
Step 2 — De-verbalize (60 sec)
Fear usually speaks in sentences. Silently say to yourself:
“I’m noticing sensations, not predictions.”
Drop the story. Keep the signal.
Neuro note: this reduces verbal rumination and prefrontal over-engagement.
Step 3 — Anchor (60–120 sec)
Pick one anchor:
the sound furthest away
your breath at the nostrils
the weight of your body on the chair
Stay with it. When thoughts intrude, don’t fight—return.
This is attentional control, not relaxation.
Step 4 — Reframe energy (30 sec)
Say, once:
“This energy is here because I care.”
Nothing more. No pep talk.
Step 5 — Act small (optional, 60 sec)
Do one tiny intentional action:
straighten posture
open laptop
send one message
stand up
Action completes the fear loop.
What do you think?
Weekly Human is a newsletter where I deliver distilled solutions - solutions shaped by lived experience across multiple fields:
Psychology and cognitive sciences (clinical and educational psychologist in supervision; Process-Based CBT and Family Therapy - in training),
Communication (12+ years; Communication Product Developer at pastel; former copywriter; co-host and strategist of Efectiv Podcast),
The human side of artificial intelligence (AI in communication; member of the EACA AI Task Force),
University teaching (associate lecturer at the Faculty of Communication and Public Relations – Making Media: Editing and Design),
Parenting, with a focus on fathers and divorced/separated fathers, as the founder of DadsAround and as a father myself.