"Everyday anxiety is a fact of life and can actually be helpful. How you use it makes all the difference. As the world gets faster and more uncertain, it’s easy to let [anxiety] overwhelm you. People get hijacked by their reptilian brain, survival instincts,
and fear. On the flip side, denying or running from anxiety causes you to become complacent. You can use anxiety in a positive way and turn it into a powerful force in your life if you strike a balance." - Bob Rosen
Here is a new way to think about anxiety: it’s just energy. It's NOT inherently
bad. It can be good or bad for us. It can have a good or bad effect in our lives.
Instead of trying to deny or repress our anxiety, why not just acknowledge it, and work WITH its energy, rather than trying to shut it down?
Interesting idea, you say ... but how do you do it? Here are four keys:
1. Stop viewing anxiety through an exclusively negative lens
“We see anxiety as something to fear and avoid,” says Rosen (quoted above) in his book Conscious: The Power of Awareness in Business and Life. “That thinking is self-defeating and makes it worse. In a sense, we need to see anxiety as a wake-up call; a
message inside of our mind telling us to pay attention. We need to accept it as a natural part of the human experience.”
Let it be a reminder to pay attention to something, but that doesn’t mean you should obsess about it. The source of your worry is something that you either: (a) need to take another specific, tangible step on, or (b)
something you need to pray about and let go of.
2. Stop idealizing stability, and recognize that a good life will involve change
“For centuries, change was viewed as dangerous or life threatening,” Rosen says. “But stability is an illusion, and uncertainty is reality. Uncertainty makes you anxious and vulnerable, and anxiety leads you to worry or run away because you’re not in control of life anymore and you feel worse.”
Get
comfortable with things being in flux. That’s the way life is. You have two options: (a) make peace with some amount of uncertainty and ambiguity, or (b) live with anxiety all the time.
3. Remember that anxiety is contagious
“We communicate our level of anxiety to others because we’re connected to each other,” Rosen says. “Studies show that your blood pressure can go up when you deal with a manager who is disrespectful, unfair, or overly anxious. People are hijacked more and more because of too much anxiety.”
To me, this reality -- how much we are affected by the emotional states of the people around us -- is significant. It's a REALLY important reason to be careful about who you include in your inner circle of community. If you spend a lot of time with anxious people, you’ll become more anxious too.
4. Recognize that we need a balance — too much OR too little anxiety can be a problem
Some people naturally have too much anxiety, and that’s a problem. “These are the people who need to be right, powerful, in control, and successful,” says Rosen. “They
orchestrate everything around them, and are mistrustful or suspicious. They’re scared of inadequacy, failure, being insignificant, or being taken advantage of.”
Fair enough. But too little anxiety isn’t good either. “You put your head in the sand in the face of change,” says Rosen. “You don’t want to take risks. You value
status quo and live in a bubble.” If that's your approach, you are susceptible to failure and struggle.
The only way forward is to accept our anxiety, to work with it and learn from it -- without letting it control us. How do we do this? By learning to listen to its cues about things that matter deeply and need our attention. And then
taking action on what we can take action on. And then -- most importantly -- praying about and letting go of the rest.
Source: This writeup is adapted from the article https://getpocket.com/explore/item/how-to-make-your-anxiety-work-for-you-instead-of-against-you
