Psychology Today: 4 Reasons Anxiety Can Be Your Friend
"When anxiety strikes, it is important to maintain your composure and focus on mobilizing your coping skills. It is not helpful to become frustrated with yourself. Neither is having anxiety about your anxiety. This is the equivalent of throwing gasoline into a fire. It only makes anxiety worse.
Instead of trying to completely eliminate your anxiety, focus on taming it. Viewing your anxiety from a different lens can help.
Acknowledging your anxiety and mobilizing your coping skills is the way to go. This can be more feasible by remembering that not all anxiety is bad. Anxiety also comes with potential benefits. Here are four reasons anxiety can be your ally.
1. Motivation to prepare
Anxiety often occurs in anticipation of a future event such as prior to giving a talk, taking an exam, or at the start of the workweek. One benefit of anxiety is that it can motivate you to prepare in advance.
2. An opportunity to reflect
There are times when anxiety is disproportionate to a stimulus. Many of our worries are only hypothetical scenarios that never come to fruition. However, there are times when anxiety is warranted and appropriate to the context.
The key is to acknowledge your anxiety rather than resist it. Be curious about the triggers of your anxiety. When you identify a trigger, consider the odds that your fears will become reality and what reasonable steps you can take to problem solve.
3. A source of self-esteem
Anxiety will always tell you why you shouldn’t do something. It will tell you to play things safe and not take any calculated risks. Blindly following your anxiety, without ever questioning it, will ultimately hold you back and prevent you from applying for a job promotion, starting a business, or asking someone on a date.
It takes courage to face your fears and pursue the life you want. Overcoming emotional adversity to achieve personal goals is a rewarding experience and a boost to one’s self-esteem.
4. A reason to be considerate
We often experience anxiety in social settings because we want to make a good impression. The reality is that we care about how we are perceived. Anxiety can serve as an impetus to put your best foot forward and be considerate when interacting with others.
In conclusion, expecting not to experience any anxiety is unrealistic because anxiety serves important functions. The key is to sharpen your coping skills to regulate your anxiety and use it to your advantage.
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Reflection:
What are some of the coping methods you use for your anxiety?
#Anxiety #Coping #MentalHealth
@comfortableNight4463
I think this covers an important point in which all our emotions are useful and important for every situations. Certain amount of stress and anxiety can really help get us mentally and physically prepared for an upcoming event and give us the necessary mindset and resources to tackle the challenge. It's when it gets chronic and excessive when it becomes a problem.