Taking the Power Back from Anxiety
It’s Monday morning at 8 a.m. You’re preparing yourself to go to work. You have an extremely important meeting coming up, but you simply aren’t feeling right. You recognize and dislike nervousness. You’ve been worried for a long now, and this week is no exception. But it hits hard, particularly if work is demanding.
You’re already racing through horror scenarios in your thoughts. You consider how you won’t be ready to concentrate during the meeting. You’re afraid of having an attack of anxiety in the meeting room, which has taken place before. While none of this occurs and you complete the meeting, you are fatigued afterward. You’re constantly battling the anxiousness, leaving little room for rest. You are helpless at the very end of the day. You have the impression that anxiety rules your life.
We’ve all been there, severely battling anxiety in order to regain power over our lives. We employ a variety of methods and techniques to calm the anxiety storm within us, ranging from guided meditations to various medicines. Most of these tactics fail, and those that succeed work only briefly. But what if there was a dependable and permanent technique to take anxiety’s power away?
Anxiety is not your enemy.
Anxiety is a catch-all term for the unsettling, awful feelings we have as a result of our nervous systems’ response to stress. As the levels of chemicals such as cortisol and adrenaline rise as a result of numerous stressors in your life, the neurological system becomes activated, which can lead to feelings of anxiety. Anxiety, when considered in this manner, is not our enemy; rather, it is a warning that we are overwhelmed. The more you correct the imbalances in your life and reduce the factors that cause stress, the less stress you will feel.
Once you comprehend the preceding principle, you can proceed to the next essential stage. It’s important to remember that battling anxiety causes more stress, leading to a rise in stress hormones, which causes more anxiety. This is a repeating cycle that feeds worry and must be interrupted. But how exactly?
We take anxiety’s power away by stepping away from the conflict rather than confronting it. When anxiety destroys you, nothing is more daring than throwing up your hands. Understanding the nervous feelings and allowing them to pass through you sends a signal to your body and brain that there is no danger. This is how you stop the cycle of stress and worry.
Vulnerability is your friend.
We nervous people frequently believe that we must conceal our uneasiness from the majority of the world. It makes us anxious and uncomfortable while showing the world that we are truly suffering on the inside.
During moments of extreme anxiety, when we are talking with someone, we try our hardest to maintain a level of calm but, in reality, we want to flee and hide. What is the reason for this? It’s because we strive to keep our anxiousness hidden from the majority of the world. But why would you do this? Why not just let it out instead of eagerly attempting to shove it down, which always causes extra stress?
When anxiety remains laid to rest it becomes stronger. It takes a lot of effort to mask your anxiousness. What if, instead, you told your conversation partner, “I’m feeling anxious and uncomfortable right now, Can we return to this later?”
We fear that admitting our concern would make us appear weak. Nothing could be more incorrect. We develop stronger by being transparent and open about our anxiety issues. No more lying means no more spending valuable mental energy dealing with anxiety when it arrives. This provides us with actual power.
Keep in mind that anxiety is a symptom of deeper stressors and problems in your life. It is a fundamental emotion that all humans share to different degrees. There should be no embarrassment in experiencing what the majority of humans do.
Bring your anxieties along for the ride.
The majority of us who suffer from worry may feel as though it is pulling us through life at its leisure. We may postpone trips due to anxiety, decline to participate in social events due to how they will make us appear, or just decrease the breadth and scale of our daily activities so that the stress is bearable. But therein lies the issue. We have given up control over our lives in order to cope with our anxieties. We’ve allowed anxiety to drive our metaphorical trip through life. Gaining authority over the steering wheel indicates regaining control of the situation. Anxiety will be okay on this journey, but it must not be the driving force.
Establish targets for yourself and strive to meet them. Allow yourself to experience anxiety if it arises. But don’t let that discourage you from attempting. It is preferable to have attempted and failed than not to have attempted at all. If you’ve always been terrified of large crowds and it’s preventing you from moving forward in life, make it your goal to go to a small event. Your anxiousness will almost certainly be at its peak, so don’t resist it. Allow it to sit in the front seat and do its job. Meanwhile, you discover how to manage life as a driver from this unique perspective.
Instead of hiding or fleeing from, or controlling, your anxiety, which requires a significant amount of mental energy, we may adjust how we think and direct all of that energy into addressing issues around the world that require our help to be solved, or enjoying life in the manner we want to live it, alongside our anxiety. The reality is that, despite your anxiety, you can probably achieve in life if you stop battling it and instead focus on your beliefs, ambitions, and happiness.
A lot of us have walked this road and made it to the other side. The idea is to understand that we give anxiety strength and that the exact same hands that give it force can also take it away.