I’ve previously discussed the difference between anxiety and depression – and the impact that both can have on our day-to-day lives. In this article and video, I want to help you to beat anxiety, so that it no longer has such a hold over your life, and daily decisions.
Connect with your anxiety
Step one is to connect to the anxiety.
This is easier said than done. It’s likely that you’ve always been told to forget about the more difficult or negative emotions – and to just be happy. But it’s easier said than done.
Stop distancing yourself
You have, therefore, become an expert at distancing yourself from negative emotions. This means that you don’t end up taking the time to dissect and understand the message of those feelings, so they keep on returning.
This could be why you feel anxious about some things, when other people don’t.
Listen
And this leads to step two: listen to the message your anxiety is trying to tell you.
Unlike depression, anxiety is trying to help motivate or prepare you for something. If you can stop suppressing the anxiety, you can understand its motive.
Action
And the last step is to action your anxiety’s message – the difficult part. This can seem scary or risky, but will lead to growth and control.
For example, doing YouTube videos used to fill me with anxiety. I would think what should I say? What happens if I get stuck, and am just wasting my time?
So, instead of feeling anxious about doing videos, or not doing videos at all, I listened to the anxiety. Now, if I don’t feel prepared, I prepare what I am going to say in advance.
I started writing scripts for my videos, which helped me to feel more in control.
It can be hard to beat anxiety, but what you can do is to use it to your advantage. What anxiety is actually trying to do is help you take back control of your life.
Sometimes you can feel powerless or scared to try something new, but if you can learn to listen to it and use anxiety’s message, you can achieve anything you set out to achieve.
