INTERNATIONAL PANIC DAY
Just chill, be cool, don’t sweat it. It’s International Panic Day on June 18. It calls attention to the condition and can be observed in one of two opposite ways.
HOW TO OBSERVE
You can mark the day by finding ways to manage and reduce stress. Breath. Relax your shoulders. Try taking off the entire day from work. Take a stroll, or roam around town. Curl up with a good book.
Or the second way that some people mark the day: Freak out! Have a full blown meltdown. Worry about as much as you can, even if you can’t do anything about it. If you can do something about it, worry anyway. Gather with friends or seek your own widespread panic. Either way, create, engage, and share using #InternationalPanicDay on social media.
You can prepare yourself to avoid panic by observing the companion day: Blame Someone Else Day.
HISTORY
Please don’t freak out, but we couldn’t find the originator or the first time it was observed. However, national psychology magazines write about the day.
We did find the most unusual root of the word “Pan” from one of the Greek gods of mythology. He wandered around in the woods, playing a pipe. While this god usually watched over the shepherds, mythology explains that whenever he was accidentally awakened from a noontime nap, Pan would give such a great shout the flocks would stampede. This sudden fear led the Greeks to name the reaction with the word panikos, giving us the word panic we use today.
