Some anxiety can be a healthy thing: you can strike the right balance if you know how.
While some cases of anxiety may require medical treatment, everyday anxiety is a fact of life for most everyone.
“How you use your anxiety can make all the difference,” says psychologist Bob Rosen. “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.”
“We see anxiety as something to fear and avoid,” says Rosen. Instead, think of anxiety as a wake-up call; a message inside of our mind telling us to pay attention.
Anxiety is energy, and you can strike the right balance if you know what to look for.
Some people naturally have too much anxiety, and that’s a problem. You have too much anxiety if you tend to expect respect and admiration, are frustrated a lot, question the motives of others, and are overly impatient, says Rosen.
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. It’s important to allow yourself to stretch and to feel just the right amount of anxiety.”
Living with the right amount of anxiety provides just enough tension to drive you forward without causing you to resist, give up, or try to control what happens. “It’s a productive energy,” says Rosen.
The first step is getting comfortable being uncomfortable. “A lot of people think the goal of life is to be happy, but it’s not,” says Rosen. “The goal is to live a full life, and sometimes you’ll have good days and sometimes bad days. Develop the skill of being uncomfortable. Knowing you can and will get through it is important.”
Taking a break, going for a walk or doing meditation can help reduce too much anxiety.
All change happens in the gap between our current reality and desired future, says Rosen. “We have a problem we want to solve or have a goal we want to accomplish,” he says. “In the gap sits our motivation, our engagement, and our anxiety. Anxiety is the energy that moves us across the gap. We need to have enough energy to change. You can’t change or transform yourself unless you allow yourself to feel uncertainty and vulnerability.”
For those who need professional help dealing with their anxiety, our clinic offers neurofeedback. This computer based system monitors brainwaves in real time and makes subtle changes, all while you watch a movie or listen to music. Neurofeedback is a sound, well researched method that may help reduce or eliminate anxiety symptoms with more permanent results.
To learn more about our neurofeedback, check out our page on this site or call (321)-444-6750 for more information.
