Book Review: Good Anxiety
Book Review
Good Anxiety: Harnessing the Power of the Most Misunderstood Emotion
Summary
We are living in the age of anxiety, a situation that often makes us feel as if we are locked into an endless cycle of stress, sleeplessness, and worry. But what if we had a way to leverage our anxiety to help us solve problems and fortify our well-being? What if, instead of seeing anxiety as a curse, we could recognize it for the unique gift that it is?
As a neuroscientist, Dr. Wendy Suzuki has discovered a paradigm-shifting truth about anxiety: yes, it is uncomfortable, but it is also essential for our survival. In fact, anxiety is a key component of our ability to live optimally. Every emotion we experience has an evolutionary purpose, and anxiety is designed to draw our attention to a number of negative emotions. If we simply approach anxiety as something to avoid , get rid of , or dampen , we actually miss an opportunity to not only manage the symptoms of anxiety better but also discover ways to improve our lives. Listening to our worries from a place of curiosity, instead of fear, can actually guide us onto a path that leads to joy.
Key Takeaways
Anxiety is a symbolical and physical response to stress. It’s our brain’s way of signaling us to pay attention to possible danger and is driven by our survival instincts. However, our brains cannot discern between real and imaginative threat, leaving us stuck in anxiety. We can use positive coping mechanisms such as naming our feelings, practicing self reflection, seeking support, participating in hobbies or sports, to manage stressors and control our anxiety rather than let it control us.
Anxiety is also typically experienced and marked by negative emotions because our brains are naturally biased towards negative feelings and information. However, negative feelings bring discomfort. But rather than avoid discomfort, we need to learn how to regulate it — including emotions of all kinds. This is how we flip anxiety from bad to good.
Good anxiety gives us superpowers:
Strengthens our overall physical and emotional resilience
Increases our ability to perform tasks and activities at a higher level
Optimizes our mindset
Increases our focus and productivity
Enhances our social intelligence
Improves our creative skills
In order to regulate your emotions and build stress tolerance, follow these 4 steps:
Become aware of your emotions.
Allow the discomfort.
Feel the feelings.
Make another choice.
The more you practice these steps, the more automatic they become.
In summary, get to know your anxiety - how you experience it, what triggers it, how you cope with it. Awareness is key to helping you manage it, lessen its impact, begin to channel it.
Reflect on whether you are managing your emotions in a cognitive reappraisal or expressive suppression. When we reappraise a situation, we are viewing the same situation in a different light. When we suppress, we are avoiding dealing with the discomfort. When you allow discomfort, you get accustomed to the feeling and realize that you can survive it. You also give yourself the time and space to make a more conscious decision about how to act or respond.
ARC Application
As Suzuki mentions, awareness is key to helping you manage anxiety, lessen its impact, and begin to channel it. This is why The ARC Method begins with Awareness and using the Enneagram framework to provide deep understanding of our underlying motivations, fears, even our stress triggers. The Enneagram also brings to conscious what coping mechanisms we tend to automatically engage in to self soothe or avoid uncomfortable feelings. It’s only with Awareness that we can begin to know that we have a choice in making more positive decisions. Allowing discomfort creates the pause that is needed to make another choice (ie. Response) instead of mindlessly react. Then, by leveraging the brain’s plasticity and making the Commitment to practice, we have the ability to change our behavior around our relationship to anxiety.
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Ready to turn your bad anxiety into good anxiety? Learn about 1:1 Enneagram-type specific coaching here.
Check out all of our free Enneagram resource guides here.
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