The feeling is familiar: chest
tightness that results in hyperventilation together with a feeling of
frustration and losing control of the situation. Anxiety is the sister of panic
and the direct mother of heartburn and bad decisions. There are many kinds of
psychological, pharmacologic, and methodological treatments to cope with
anxiety. Today I'd like to propose a simple, but immediately effective
treatment. Let's focus on thoughts of actions, not on thoughts of paralysis and
inaction.
Thoughts
that lead us to feel panic and anxiety are usually self-victimizing. We do not
visualize how we can have control and we continue to think in the same way. For
example, we think "I'm going to lose my job", "the economy is
terrible, and it won't get better", "my partner has a lover",
"I'm going to lose the contest", etc. If we enter the road with these thoughts of paralysis and
inaction, it will leads us to more paralysis, to a total block.
This
is the reason that we must focus on thoughts of action. This means that we must concentrate on the things over
which we have immediate control, on the things that we can do such as "I'm
going to start sending my résumé to other companies", "I'm going to
think of new products that will be successful in this economy", "I'm
going to reinvent myself and cultivate myself", "I'm going to prepare
better for the contest", and so forth. We will strengthen ourselves when we face crisis and the
questions of life from this perspective. It can even help us prepare better to
face any event that could occur, having peace of mind in our heads and our
hearts without letting anxiety disturb us.
It will go away
right away. Repeat this procedure as many times as the symptoms arise.