The Anxiety Recipe

Want to know the recipe for Anxiety? It’s the under estimation of skill with the over estimation of danger. In basic terms, anxiety is produced when one sees a situation as bad, scary, hard or difficult when it might not be and then one believes they are not capable of handling it. Think of the classic example of a test. If you think the test is going to be incredibly difficult and you believe you are not going to do well, imagine how you would feel the day of the test? Anxious! Does that bring back an old memories for anyone?! Here’s the kicker though. When we know the recipe, we can see anxiety for what it is. It is not unusual or surprising. It follows the same recipe or process over and over. So if we realize that, we know how to manage it. Actually the content with anxiety does not really matter. It’s the same process over and over. We have the power to break the process though. To solve anxiety about the test is not to skip the test. It is to utilize our cognitive abilities to change our approach. This test may be hard but I have the ability to manage it. Approaching the test that way is far less anxiety producing. Do not get stuck in the content of worry. Know the process and choose to change it.