Anxiety

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Anxious Woman (thesuccess, Morguefile)

Anxiety

Incapacitating the self to avoid preparing for a situation. (Paul Solomon)
Questions to Self: Do I need to work on being more present, more here-and-now? Or am I being nudged to handle something important? Will research help? Will careful exposure to the source of anxiety help? Will getting creative help?
Affirmation: "I will deal with it." "I will handle it."
Similar emotions: Worry, Doubt, Fear, Nervous.
Opposite emotions: Peace.

Bach Flower Remedies: Agrimony [false outer calm hiding inner conflict], Red Chestnut [over-concern about others], White Chestnut [repetitive thoughts].
California Flower Essences: Chamomile or Lavender [soothing], Filaree [obsessive worry about minor events].

Quotes

Indeed, the reaction that underlies worry is the vigilance for potential danger that has, no doubt, been essential for survival over the course of evolution... the task of worrying is to come up with positive solutions for life’s perils by anticipating dangers before they arise.
The difficulty is with chronic, repetitive worries, the kind that recycle on and on and never get any nearer a positive solution.
(Daniel Goleman, Emotional Intelligence, p.65)
[Solution given (pp.68-69): self-awareness (spot it); relaxation exercises (practised daily; use when worry starts); critically challenge the worrisome thoughts.]

When you feel doubt and anxiety assailing your inner sky, diminishing your faith and your love, to the point of preventing you from seeing the splendour of creation, imagine you are sending rays of light into this fog; it may be thick, but it will eventually disappear. (O.M. Aïvanhov)

Resources

Being Here-Now (PWP).
How to manage your worries (BBC Ideas, 2016).
World Hacks: How improv helped me beat anxiety' (BBC, 2018). This is about learning to perform without a script in front of others. It teaches you to get out of your head and be present out there by playing off of someone else. A study found a reduction in social anxiety in 70% of students.
When is it good to worry? (BBC, 2018).
'Eco-anxiety': how to spot it and what to do about it (BBC, 2019).
How to avoid 'news anxiety' (BBC, 2020).
Climate activism isn’t making young people anxious. Climate change is (Natasha Abhayawickrama, The Guardian, 2021).

This is part of a series on Emotion

Also see:-

Emotion

Emotion Index

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