Posted by DrPFox
February is American Heart Month and the perfect time to evaluate the stress and anxiety in your life. Remember that stress is a normal experience and can motivate you to make important changes in your life. Anxiety, in contrast, is our fear system gone awry. The fight-or-flight reseponse keeps us safe from threats in the environment. When we are constantly in this activated state, anxiety takes over and wears out the body. Anxiety is a primary factor in cardiovascular disease.
What if we made friends with anxiety and used it to improve our well-being? Dr. Todd Kashdan, a clincial psychologist, recommends that we use anxiety to fuel our curiousity.
~ Take the anxious feelings along as you explore situations that provoke anxiety.
~ Focus on your strengths & decide how you want to spend your time.
~ Harness anxiety to maximze your attention & energy. Butterflies are good!
~ Defuse your thoughts. Ugly thoughts filled with self-doubt foster ugly emotions.
Kashdan suggests using the Two Systems exercise, created by Dr. Steven Hayes, to defuse anxiety by tuning into your curiousity: Imagine anxiety and curiousity are two knobs. Imagine the knobs go from 0 to 10. You have the power to dial back, or turn down, the anxiety. You also have the power to turn up the curiousity. Practice this exercise. Make it your goal is to turn down the anxiety and to turn up the curiousity.
Adopt a perspective of curiousity to stretch your skills and knowledge. Go forth and explore!
Learn more:
Managing Stress for Heart Health ~ by Anxiety Disorders Association of America ~ February 2, 2012
Anxiety ~ by American Psychological Association
Curious? Discover the Missing Ingredient to a Fulfilling Life ~ by Todd Kashdan, Ph.D. ~ 2009 ~ Harper
The Psychologist & The Monk ~ Dr. Steven C. Hayes & Venerable Lobsang Nyingpo ~ October 10, 2011 ~ YouTube
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