Anxiety or Stress

We all have anxious and stressful moments but today many are operating in high functioning anxiety mode. It is a form of anxiety that you won’t get diagnosed with, but is similar to generalized anxiety, and also involves gastro symptoms, headaches, panic attacks, racing thoughts and so on. It is essentially a way of coping that pushes you to become harder and faster, which often leads to perfectionism, people-pleasing, and burnout.

Some believe that there is no actual stress or anxiety but rather your thoughts that create these false beliefs. Something triggers us to recreate the loops from our past that become stuck in those loops, and we exacerbate the situation so we focus on the loops.

Anxiety is defined by persistent, excessive worries and can often be triggered by stressful events or experiences and might not go away even in the absence of a stressor.

Excessive anxiety can cause similar issues as chronic stress: emotional distress and physical symptoms.

Stress is ‘your expectations of your demands’. The five general areas it stems from are:

·      Control – if you do not have control over something stress goes up, yet you can only control your Controllables.

·      Uncertainty – This is the likelihood of something happening. Again, you can only affect what you can control. If something is 50/50 you can only affect the 50%.

·      Connectedness – People who feel well-connected and supported by others have lower rates of anxiety and depression.

·      Safety - If someone feels threatened or fearful, they may have increased levels of anxiety.

·      Progress – Where you are not seeing whatever you are doing as progress at the level you expect. 

Just recognizing which of the five areas of stress can reduce their level. Then use my 5R’s of Good Decisions to reduce its level the same for anxiety.

In today’s fast-paced, technologically advanced, world, there are more distractions than ever, and it’s particularly hard to focus on lowering our stress or anxious feelings.

Getting help with anxiety and realizing it is not from a lack of effort or faith and going to therapy is not a sign of weakness or loss of faith. However, not addressing these issues will not reduce your suffering.