What to get a handle on anxiety? Consider naming it!
Anxieties, if left unchecked, can own us. Sleepless nights. Nagging thoughts. Hours of worry that zap our and creativity. It’s like paying a debt that you don’t even owe.
But you can stop anxiety. Stop it dead in its tracks.
Naming the cause of your anxiety as a person or thing can be the best way to get control of it.
When you don’t address something head on, it invariably gets bigger. It may be a difficult conversation due at work. Or a medical test with potentially sobering implications.
It could be something as minor as a closet in need of straightening. Yet the project looms bigger every week. You get in a tizzy when you can’t match socks. Your clothes are a jumble as you parse through the drawers. You soon avoid the project entirely. The anxiety starts.
But when you speak of it, it cuts the problem down to size. You can address the underlining cause of the anxiety bit by bit. You become less afraid. You become braver.
A popular writer was so racked with self-doubt she feared her work would never make it to print. She named her anxiety, “Nigel,” and gave him a snooty British accent. She could visualize him sitting in an overstuffed chair in the corner wearing a persnickety, tweed jacket criticizing her work. She learned to waving off his little slights. Finally, she told him to “bug off.” He did. She became a best seller.
Name your anxiety. Chop it down to size. Then tell it to, “bug off!”
