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Richard R. Powell

27 Feb 2026

Dialed Down Anxiety is Everything We Need

Anxiety, rather than being a flaw to eliminate, is biological scaffolding for empathy, humility, and restraint. Drawing on Dr. Tracy Foose's work at UCSF's Anxiety Disorders Treatment Program, this article reframes anxiety as a "protective messenger" that, when welcomed rather than resisted, builds wisdom and intellectual humility rather than certainty and rigid thinking. Includes research on Bayesian learning, suggesting highly anxious people may have sharper instincts for detecting danger and manipulation. The post distinguishes this type of anxiety from an anxiety disorder, which arises when we fight the feeling instead of integrating it, and closes with a call for leaders who've learned to balance sensitivity and anxiety with self-compassion.

Richard R. Powell

25 Dec 2025

Individuation and the Self

What is the self? It's not just our ego, it's something larger. Jung, Internal Family Systems founder Richard Schwartz, and Christian contemplatives like Thomas Merton have, in different ways, described an organizing center, distinct from our parts and defenses, that can be trusted to provide a unifying structure to the psyche. In this article, these different perspectives are brought together to suggest a common intuition about who we really are.

Other Articles

A Quiet Life

Is productivity really the goal — or is it a trap? Consider the quiet life: a life measured by being rather than doing, where rest needs no productive justification and "following your bliss" matters more than hustle. Could you live without the spotlight or recognition for your achievements and successes? Is the trade-off worth it?

How Many Parts?

Are we one self, or many? I trace "parts" thinking from Jung's dream analysis through IFS founder Richard Schwartz's work with eating disorders — introducing the idea that beneath our conflicting inner voices sits a calm, undamageable Self, recognized across time and traditions from Jung to Merton, and Christianity to Buddhism.

Flow

What if presence, not productivity, is the real measure of a meaningful life? This article consideres flow through Dave Evans's contrast between the "transactional world" of output and impact and the "flow world" of full presence in the moment — a distinction he connects to Zen's original sense of "joining with the flow" of perpetual change.

A New Look at Depression

A new Theory suggests that depressed states evolved to minimize risk in social interactions in which individuals perceive that the ratio of their social value to others, and their social burden on others, is at a critically low level. I share my own experience with depression to illustrate this explanation.

Anxiety Techniques Rated

A personal review of the practices that work best to support a resilient mind — that is one that remains in a state of low agitation even as the turbulent flow of life surrounds you. 25 techniques I've tried with scores for effectiveness.

The Welcoming Prayer

The Welcoming Prayer can feel counter intuitive to people because it welcomes the very emotions we have repressed or denied. But feelings that are not acknowledged and welcomed continue to seek our attention. The Welcoming Prayer is a time-tested method for sending a message to the parts of us that driver internal division.

Still Stream Coaching

Jungian coaching with Richard Powell — In person in Nanaimo, BC, Canada, or by video, anywhere.

Jungian coaching with Richard Powell — In person in Nanaimo, BC, Canada, or by video, anywhere.

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