At one point in our lives, we all have experienced anxiety. Anxiety is an emotion, accompanied by the feeling of uneasiness, worry, fear or dread. It also includes a physiological experience like sweating, feeling restless, increased heartbeat, fatigue, muscle tension and so on.
As an emotion, experiencing anxiety is normal, as it is a natural response to stress. For instance, we might feel anxious before appearing for an important exam or giving a job interview.
Since it is a response to stress, anxiety leads to the activation of our protective biological reaction to any threat that may be present, ultimately preparing us to fight or flight.
By itself, anxiety is not ‘wrong’ or the ‘enemy’ as it helps us to cope with any situation that is perceived as threat and focus our attention on how we can deal with the threat.
However, our perception of anxiety is a little bit skewed. We perceive anxiety as something negative and wrong, an emotion that needs to be fixed because ‘it is not normal for us to feel this way.’
When we approach anxiety from a point of judgement and resistance, we are depriving ourselves from an opportunity to give it some space and attempt to understand the need underlying this natural human emotion.
Since, it is a response to a perceived threat, anxiety is like a cue that tells we need to protect ourselves from this threat.
For example, feeling anxious about appearing for a job interview, might lead us to constantly think about all the possible ways that it can go wrong, only to make ourselves more anxious and sometimes fearing that we may lose control and say something wrong.
This fear that anxiety brings, reminds us of all the things that ‘should’ not go wrong or ‘must’ be avoided to ultimately receive an ‘expected’ outcome. Hence, anxiety nudges us to live in the future.
Because we cannot have a 100% assurance of any outcome that will happen in the future, the fear of uncertainty comes forward and takes us by the hand, reviewing all the possible consequences that may follow, only avoid the ones we don’t want.
So, in order to manage anxiety, we need to first make space for it. Bringing in awareness about how we are approaching the emotion with compassion and curiosity, attempting to reach the underlying need that it is trying to manage and protect. This process is definitely easier said than done, its complex and layered within our own individual human experience. But this journey helps to cultivate trust in our abilities and in who we are, right here, right now. Get to Know More about Reconnect with Self, Priyanshi Bhardwaj is top Anxiety Counselor in Delhi helps you in Anxiety, Depression and Grief Counseling.