Reduce Your Anxiety by Knowing When You Are Feeling Good
Worry is built into our brains, and that’s not always a bad thing. This excruciating, persistent feeling of anxiety is part of our fight-or-flight response and prompts us to act in situations where we cannot be safe. In situations where you have not yet identified the source of imminent danger, your brain is most likely scanning for potential threats.
While this was an effective system for early humans, it is not well suited to modern life. This is why Dr. Rick Hanson, psychologist, meditation teacher, and author of books including The Brain of Buddha , in an article on Ideas.Ted.Com recommends that you tune in to something other than potential threats . Here’s how to do it.
Pay attention when you feel good
Hanson says that even if you feel like you worry all the time, we need to challenge that thinking. One way to do this is to check yourself periodically to make sure you are doing well. We’ll let Hanson guide you through this :
Take a closer look at this moment, right now – you are probably mostly all right. Nobody attacks you, you are not sick, there is no crisis where you sit.
It may not be perfect, but it’s okay.
By “right now” I mean this moment. When we think about the future, we worry and plan. When our mind fades into the past, we resent and regret. The threads of fear are woven into the mental canvases of the past and the future.
Look again at this thin segment of time, which is the present. Are you mostly okay at the moment? Are you breathing? Is your heart beating? Is your mind working?
In everyday life, you can access this fundamental sense of justice even when you are doing something . You don’t ignore real threats or problems and pretend that everything is perfect — it’s not.
But in the midst of it all, you usually see that you are fine now.
Keep it up
After going through these steps once and figuring out how to test yourself, Hanson recommends doing it multiple times a day. When you (hopefully) realize that you are not in immediate danger, remind yourself that you are okay. It’s not about embellishing the bad sides of your life or telling other people that you’re okay if you’re really struggling. Instead, according to Hanson, it all boils down to admitting that you’re okay at a particular moment.
This method is most useful for people who find themselves anxious all (or at least most) of the time and need a way to help them understand that this is not the only option. “The fear that something bad will happen if you allow yourself to feel good is unfounded,” writes Hanson. “You don’t have to be afraid that everything is okay.”