Many of the moments in which we feel anxious and stressed go unnoticed by most people. They can be everyday events that are unimportant, but it is about how we feel at that particular point in time. As soon as the moment has passed, we often realise that we were worrying about something trivial.

This morning’s fleeting moment of small-scale anxiety took place in the Post Office. I go there every day to send parcels for work, so I am more than familiar with their queueing system. Everyone has to queue at the main cashier’s desk, but when the shop counter becomes free, the member of staff stationed there calls out so that the first person in the queue can head over there instead.

The member of staff at the cashier’s desk was dealing with a passport form and I was the only person in the queue. The rest of the shop was empty. Usually, I would be called over to the shop counter, but there was a new member of staff sat behind the desk who had her head down looking at her phone. Although most people would have just walked over to her desk, I hesitated. Then froze. I’m not sure why, but in that moment it felt like it would be too awkward to interrupt her, even though she shouldn’t have been ignoring her only potential customer.

I remained in the main queue and wouldn’t have spoken up even if another customer walked in and walked straight up to the shop counter. I was put out of my misery when the cashier shouted out that I should “use the other till”. As is often the case, having someone give me direct instruction was a relief. I need this clarity, otherwise I can become lost in my own indecisive nature. This whole episode lasted less than a minute, but it was enough to make me feel uneasy.

Today, there were dozens of moments that made me feel more anxious than this, but it is an ideal example of how something so ridiculously insignificant can make us — or at least people with a mind like mine — feel deeply uncomfortable. Even for just a few seconds. I tend to over-analyse every situation before, during and after the event, so things become magnified in my thoughts. Which has led me to write this down in today’s diary entry rather than forget about this fleeting, unimportant incident.