Anxiety is not the enemy
An evidence based look at what anxiety is trying to tell you and how acceptance based approaches can change your relationship with it.
We tend to treat anxiety as an intruder, something to silence as quickly as possible. Yet anxiety is one of the oldest, most refined systems in the human body. It is information, not malfunction.
What anxiety is actually doing
Anxiety is your nervous system flagging perceived threat or uncertainty. The trouble is not that we feel it, the trouble is the secondary layer of fighting it. Anxiety about anxiety is what most people are stuck inside.
A more workable approach
- Name it. Putting language to the feeling reduces its intensity.
- Make room for it. You do not have to like a feeling to allow it.
- Choose a values aligned action anyway. Anxiety can ride along while you live.