Have you ever been anxious about anything or a situation before? I’m sure your answer is ‘yes’. Everyone has been anxious one time or the other. Anxiety is a normal reaction wherein you feel a sense of uneasiness, apprehension, uncertainty, or fear about something. The feeling of anxiety can be quite overwhelming and tends to throw one off balance.
Just like every other emotion, anxiety has a purpose – to protect you and keep you out of harm’s way by motivating you to take some kind of action. Anxiety can become a problem when it begins to interfere with your relationships, work, academics, hobbies, and other important areas of life i.e physically, cognitively, emotionally, and behaviorally.
There are a few symptoms of anxiety such as trembling, inability to concentrate, muscle tension, a fast heart rate, restlessness, headache, sweating, flooded thoughts, and nausea.
When the symptoms are excessive, you may develop certain anxious conditions such as phobias, social anxiety, or panic.
Jeffrey Maganis, co-founder of Calm By Wellness and serial entrepreneur, said “Anxiety is growing at an alarming rate, much of it has been caused by the hyper reality of social media. Having people being mindfully aware of their situation and what makes them happy is at the core of mental health. With the latest advancements in life science research, people can try new solutions to be their best self. Everything from meditation apps and hot yoga, to CBD oil and biohacking.”
Also Brene Brown, another one of my favorite authors, shares: “If you trade your authenticity for safety, you may experience the following: anxiety, depression, eating disorders, addiction, rage, blame, resentment, and inexplicable grief.” (I’ll take authenticity, how about you?)
Certain drugs have often been prescribed to relieve anxiety but the major one which has gained much attention is CBD due to active wellness nature as said by global wellness summit. This is because CBD has been proven to counteracts many of THC adverse effects. A right proportion of CBD administered appropriately is capable of treating a number of anxiety disorders ranging from Panic disorder, Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), e.t.c.
Productivity vs Anxiety
Productivity isn’t just about checking boxes off your to-do list; it’s about making sure you’re getting the right things done, in the right time-frame, in a successful and effective way. Having a good productivity system in order and an effective workflow you enjoy is valuable not only for your work and also for your personal life. It starts by setting realistic goals, breaking those goals down into actionable tasks, and at the end of it all, asking yourself, “did I accomplish something meaningful with a measurable impact from what I set out to do?”. One major reason why people are being less productive is the anxiety feeling, it dampens your morale to knock off your to-do list.
However, anxiety can hinder productivity if not well channeled. People need to leverage on their anxiety so as to attain maximum productivity in their daily living. How
Accept That Anxiety is Inevitable
Being anxious is part of living. It is that moment that helps you realize that you are in a situation or there is a situation greater than you and out of your control. Everyone loves to be in control of happenings around and within their lives but we just always can’t. The more you view anxiety as normal, the less power it can have over you. Even successful people experience fear, they just choose to find a way to persevere in spite of it. Always keep in mind that anxiety and fear are natural reactions. Being able to choose and focus on the task in front of you rather than the fear related to it will give you an edge.
Undress Your Anxiety
Disarm your anxiety by asking yourself what it is you are truly afraid of. What could be the worst possible outcome, and what are the odds of that actually happening? At this point, you realize even the worst outcome isn’t as bad as it may seem in your head. Your anxiety begins to decrease when you can make this detailed analysis.
Channel The Anxiety Into Motivation
Let’s assume, you have to complete a project by the end of the week, as the date comes closer, you may begin to stress out because the project is not finished. While no one enjoys that feeling of being behind, the pressure of the looming due date can motivate you to act fast and dedicate all of your attention to getting it done. In other words, a little bit of stress can push you to meet your deadlines and goals quicker and with greater focus. Anxiety often results from some sort of apprehension about the future, perhaps you are worried about the outcome of something you really care about.
Remind yourself why it matters to you in the first place, and let that drive you forward. Anxiety has the ability to make you more alert, focused, and productive, and you have the ability to use that to your advantage.
Distinguish Between Productive Worry And Unproductive Worry
Anxiety can either be productive or unproductive. Unproductive anxiety usually materializes to worrying about things that are out of your control and may lead to an anxiety attack. If you can’t do anything to change the situation, stop wasting your time and energy by worrying about it. Leave it.
On the other hand, productive anxiety generally amounts to worrying about things you actually have the power to change.
Verbal Reverse Psychology
Anxiety is the body’s natural response to stress. Once you accept that anxiety is inevitable, you can learn how to work with it instead of against it. A research study conducted at Alison Wood Brooks, a professor at Harvard Business School who has studied the phenomenon concluded by urging people to say “I am excited” in place of “I am nervous” out loud can improve performance. In order to increase anxiety levels during the study, Dr. Alison Woods Brooks told students their persuasive speeches would be recorded. Before delivering the speech, students were instructed to say “I am excited” or “I am calm” out loud to themselves.
Those who said “I am excited” gave longer speeches that were more competent, relaxed, and persuasive than those who said, “I am calm”, because anxiety and excitement are both emotional states characterized by high arousal, Dr. Woods suggests it may be easier to reframe symptoms of anxiety as excitement rather than trying to be calm. When you’re feeling anxious, you often focus on potential threats, in these situations, it is more productive to try to reframe the situation and focus on potential opportunities instead of threats.
Do a Mind Dump
Grab a notebook and jot down your worries. Writing down those things can be cathartic. It sounds simple right? This exercise of writing everything down in a mind dump gives you a platform to pour out whatever is been bottled up inside you. Then you can begin to develop a new perspective and come up with a workable game plan.
Conclusion
Whether you like it or not, anxiety and stress are unavoidable. Seventy-two percent of people who experience stress and anxiety daily say it impacts their lives at least moderately. Lives are being affected by both every passing moment, considering that stress affects seven different body systems.
Building on the foundation of animal studies, human studies are starting to provide evidence to demonstrate that CBD can improve many commonly reported anxiety-disorder symptoms, including acute stress and anxiety.
Brazilian researchers from a small double-blind study of patients afflicted with generalized social anxiety and another set of researchers in another small study concluded CBD significantly reduced anxiety, cognitive impairment, and discomfort in their speech performance thereby increasing productivity.