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- Chances are you're experiencing

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some stress and anxiety right now,

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between the pandemic, politics
and the economic downturn,

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there are plenty of things
to be worried about.

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So, here are four techniques
for managing your anxiety.

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So what's actually happening in your body

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when you're anxious?

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When you notice a threat

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you engage your avoidance
motivational system

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which gives you energy
to engage in activities

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that will help you evade that threat.

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Research finds that

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when you're trying to
avoid a particular threat

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it also makes you more sensitive

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to other threats in the environment,

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as a result, the whole world can seem like

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a more stressful and dangerous place

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when you're dealing with
a particular problem.

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This is where energy
reduction techniques come in,

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you can either engage in meditation

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and mindfulness techniques

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aimed to calm the motivational energy,

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or you can dissipate that energy

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through an activity like
exercising or going for a walk.

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Calming that energy reduces
anxiety in the short run

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but you haven't done anything

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to remove that threat
from the environment.

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So as a result

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you're more likely to build
up stress and anxiety again.

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One of the other reasons to
engage in mindfulness techniques

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rather than just exercise,

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is that by paying attention
to your pattern of thoughts

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you're more likely to recognize

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when you start a cycle
of negative thinking.

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This pattern of repeated
thoughts is called rumination

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and it can lead you to
maintain your anxiety.

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As you become better at
recognizing when you're ruminating

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you can then explicitly
focus on something else.

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Write about what's bothering you

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so that you don't have
to keep thinking about it

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or call a colleague
and have a conversation

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about something else,

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by learning to redirect your
thoughts instead of ruminating,

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you can decrease the duration of episodes

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where you feel anxious.

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Part of the reason people
are anxious right now

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is because there are many threats

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you can't do anything about,

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which can lead to
feelings of helplessness,

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that's when you should find
something on your to-do list

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that's easy and doesn't
require a lot of effort

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to complete successfully.

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The combination of completing something

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and taking an active role in your work

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will help reduce your stress,

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it might even let you work
on something more difficult.

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Finally, the most
effective and hardest way

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to deal with anxiety

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is to focus on something desirable
that you want to achieve.

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It's difficult to do that

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because your avoidance motivation

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causes you to see flaws

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in any course of action you wanna take,

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so it can be hard to truly
engage with your work goals,

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but when you do start putting energy

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towards something desirable

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you actually flip your motivational system

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from the avoidance mode
to the approach mode.

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Pursuing a particular desirable outcome

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actually helps you notice

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other potentially desirable things.

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The whole world will look
better and more hopeful

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when you're energized to
achieve something positive.

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When you're pursuing a positive outcome

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you experience anticipation,

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and if you achieve it, you feel
happy, joyous, or satisfied,

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even if you don't succeed

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you feel disappointed
rather than stressed.

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Ultimately you wanna
develop all these techniques

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so you can be less anxious.

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