Anxiety Ease | High Functioning Anxiety, Entrepreneur, Business Leaders, Neuroscience, Anxiety, Psychology of Mind, Resilience · Lisa L. Hartwell, PsyD,RN

Losing a Wedding Ring Diamond: How to Find Calm in Crisis Situations with my RBA Method

·16 min·1 clip

High-functioning anxiety is actually a helpful alert system—it's your internal GPS.

Dr. Lisa Hartwell starts with the kind of moment that can make a nervous system jump: a missing diamond from her wedding ring. She treats the loss as more than an annoyance and names it as the sort of thing that can set off high-functioning anxiety or a fuller panic response. Rather than letting the moment take over, she pauses. She says high-functioning anxiety can work like an internal alert system when it is handled well. That gives the story a steadier center. She explains that panic would have made it hard to reach her goal or think clearly about what to do next. So she stays with the facts of the moment instead of spiraling into fear. She remembers the first flash of sadness and the urge to search frantically. Then she settles into the method she knows by heart. Her RBA approach becomes the backbone of the conversation. She describes it as getting anchored, recognizing what is happening, breathing, and then acting. The method is not presented as theory from a distance. It is shown as a tool she is using in real time. She also reflects on what the diamond means inside a marriage. That gives the moment emotional weight without letting it swallow the whole scene. The point is not that anxiety disappears. The point is that it can be directed. She keeps returning to the idea that steady response is something you practice. The small crisis becomes rehearsal for the larger shocks that life eventually brings. The message is that repeated practice on small problems builds the skill you need for the bigger ones. She leaves listeners with the sense that a settled response can be learned, one breath and one choice at a time.

As heard by us

A lost diamond becomes a plainspoken lesson in staying steady when anxiety spikes.

A missing diamond from a wedding ring becomes a neat way into how a small crisis can send anxiety spinning. Dr. Lisa Hartwell keeps the focus on that jump in the mind, then moves to her RBA method: get anchored, breathe, and act.

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When one missing diamond sends your mind into overdrive.

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