Anxiety!
A word that is uttered every 2 hours by people today!
Be it a teenager who is struggling to be seen on social media or a Team Leader who doesn’t know how to handle critical situations. Be it a student appearing for an interview or a homemaker facing challenges to deal with toxic family members. We are using this word conveniently to put everything under the bucket of this anxiety.
What is this anxiety? Why do people are experiencing this more often than ever?
The American Psychological Association (APA) defines anxiety as “an emotion characterized by feelings of tension, worried thoughts and physical changes like increased blood pressure”.
While some people do experience these defined symptoms, the majority of people are conveniently using this word without even knowing what this is. with an increasing number of complexities w.r.t. work and relationships, the number of events that trigger these anxious responses is high.
There are a lot of studies that are going on around this to prevent and cure this anxiety. But have you ever considered this? “One should cure what exists” let’s understand this.
Reena, one of my old clients, approached me with anxiety issues. When we discussed this at a deeper level, we figured out it was not complete anxiety but overthinking about one small past event.
Unfortunately, just because she couldn’t identify this root cause, she labeled it as “anxiety” and started experiencing all symptoms. When she changed her label, her life changed too!
In my book “being me” I have emphasized the power of the word and its correlation to emotions.
You all know how the mind works. The mind doesn’t validate unless it’s asked to. When you label something as “anxiety” (without validating) mind accepts and attracts (manifests) all symptoms related to anxiety.
Hence, when I say “one should cure what exists” we need to validate whether the medical definition of anxiety is true or not!
These points will help you validate
- Check the labels you are giving to this feeling
- Validate the gravity and intensity of this feeling
- Try changing the label and see if there is any progress
- Always use fewer intensity labels.
- Don’t assume its anxiety unless all the above checks are done
Supriya Pujari
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