Now I am quite a private person. I don’t usually often share things openly. Especially when it comes to struggles.
This was also the case when I had anxiety. I kept it secret for months – I didn’t want anyone to know. I felt like I was going mad at times.
The interesting thing was that once I did start opening up and sharing my experience with others, I realised that I certainly wasn’t alone in my struggles.
You see, anxiety affects you in so many ways. It affects the way you feel, but it also affects the way you perceive things. It also affects the way you manage your day to day tasks to be able to get through.
With anxiety, and you might relate to this, you often feel so out of control, like your feelings and emotions are running the show, and regularly taking over. The same can be said about stress and overwhelm. But what if we could actually flip this, and be aware that anxiety might actually be able to be a good thing? Sound crazy?! Let’s look at it further.
Stress and anxiety can actually help to motivate you and even to energise you. If you are in a new situation, some anxiety or stress can actually make you feel excited and encourage you to positively step outside of your comfort zone. You might be starting a new job, or a new position in your job, or travelling somewhere new. The type of anxiety or stress we feel here can be positive.
When we feel anxious or stressed, our bodies are in what is known as fight or flight mode, and we are on high alert. This can actually help us to be more cautious, even to be able to detect danger and respond quicker in dangerous situations. This can, in turn, protect us and keep us safe.
Studies have shown that those of us who are more prone to anxiety and stress are more in tune with our emotions. We are often empathetic and more in tune with other’s feelings and emotions. We are generally good at listening and can be very kind, caring and great friends.
When we recognise our anxiety, what our triggers for it are, and then go on to confront it, we become more resilient. Anxiety can be seen as a threat, meaning we don’t have the ability or capacity to cope with it. Or, we can otherwise flip it, and see it as a challenge, knowing that we have more resources and the ability and capacity to cope with it.
This is what we do in my anxiety programs, Release, a 4 week program and Conquering Anxiety, an 8 week program. You can find more information about these programs here. We increase the resources that we have to cope when our anxiety does increase. We can learn to see it as a challenge, not a threat. We learn ways to overcome it, dampening it’s control and power over us.
We can realise that anxiety and stress can actually be our superpowers. We can flip them to work for us, rather than against us. To step out of our comfort zone, rather than be full of fear.
Seeking help is not a sign of weakness, it is a sign of wisdom.