A Low-Effort Way to Break an Anxious Rut

What a concert pianist, a high-wire walker, and a hypnotherapist can teach you about getting unstuck

Ollivier Pourriol
Forge
Published in
4 min readSep 16, 2020

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Young Black man closing his eyes with a peaceful expression.
Photo: electravk/Getty Images

Before she goes out on stage, the French concert pianist Hélène Grimaud gets stage fright. It manifests in what she calls the “adrenalin phenomenon.” Her heart races. Blood drains from her extremities. Her breath shortens. Her…

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Ollivier Pourriol
Forge
Writer for

Ollivier Pourriol is a philosopher, writer, and novelist. He lives in Paris, where he created the Cinéphilo lectures. The French Art of not Trying too hard 2020