THE 2-MINUTE ANXIETY REBOOT

Does that sound familiar?  I used to feel that way a LOT of the time.  We’ve all experienced it; that vague, formless sense of inadequacy that eats up our focus, energy, and will.  It FEELS like a “thing” that we carry around.  Most of us know exactly where it’s located in the body – the tight chest, the knot in the stomach, the closed throat, or maybe the worried forehead.  Maybe all of the above.   It FEELS like some foreign invader that has found a host there and refuses to be evicted.  When it latches on we hear a host of unwelcome thoughts being broadcast into the mind; a litany of complaints, fears, and self-recriminations.  It’s exhausting, frankly.  And we’ve no idea where it came from.  Logically, we know that we’re “just being so negative” and there’s no actual basis for our doubt and worry.  When we challenge those ideas, they often evaporate like a puff of smoke.  But still, the nagging doubt and tension persist and the thoughts return.  We cannot merely argue them away. 

So what to DO?  How can we learn, quickly and easily, to banish those vague, amorphous fears and feel better instantly? 

Listen up.  This may be the most important thing you do today:

CHECK YOUR POSTURE.  Straighten up, lift your chin, drop your shoulders, and put a smile – even a fake coathanger smile – on your face.  Look up.  And breathe.  Within a matter of seconds, your entire biochemistry will begin to shift.  In about 120 seconds you will have an entirely different imprint and those chemical signals produce a more calm, realistic, optimistic set of thoughts. 

Yes, I know that it sounds too simple to be true.  But the studies are in, and I can promise you that it IS true.  You can demonstrate it to yourself right now.  

Anxiety is not a thing that we have, it’s a thing that we DO.  More precisely, it’s a set of things that we do.  Those actions are all connected, they fire in a sequence, and if you interrupt that sequence, the anxiety abates.  That’s why you can argue yourself out of it temporarily if you apply sufficient effort.  But it’s much, much easier to understand anxiety as an action and create a different set of actions.  

So I don’t have anxiety.  I do anxiety, and that means I can DO something else. 

Have you ever been all ready to sign a contract, and then suddenly found yourself hesitating with your pen hovering over the paper?  The typical contract signing posture is hunched over, head tilted down, eyes down.  This is a posture of self-doubt.  You are accessing your nervous system’s “storage area” for doubt and concern – checking in with your stored experience, questioning whether something is “true” or “right” and taking a skeptical, critical view. 

When the eyes are “downcast” – focused in the direction of your lap – there is doubt, concern, worry, and double-checking going on.  There’s also a notably shallow breathing pattern, which actually provokes more anxiety.  It doesn’t take long to establish a feedback loop with the posture reinforcing the anxiety and the anxiety reinforcing the posture. 

Try this:  Look up and throw your head back.  Shoulders down and relaxed.  Put a big smile on your face and laugh out loud.  You can fake it.  Notice how you feel better for NO reason at all?  You might not feel like climbing Mt. Everest yet, but there’s an undeniable shift.  Now try and maintain that laughter and smile while you move into the posture of self-doubt – head down, shoulders hunched, eyes focused down and in front of you.  All the good feelings flee.  The smile turns into a grimace.  It’s all wrong.   This is the serious, introspective posture and while it might not feel terrible, it does NOT feel like hilarity. 

Things are looking UP when you lift your chin and LOOK UP.  They’re coming up roses.  They’re just uplifting, uproarious, and high & mighty.  So chin up!  Pay attention to how you DO anxiety and change THAT.   

If you’d like to know MORE about the physiology of success, Hypnosis Frederick can help!