#102. Anxiety

Most of us must have come across the word “Anxiety” in some form or the other within the past week. That is the frequency with which this word is thrown around. Despite the fact that the common man lives in times which are physically safer than any other time in the history of mankind, the term has become inseparable from the modern lifestyle.

Why could that be? Well, let’s try to figure it out.

“Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but only empties today of its strength.”

— Charles Spurgeon

Defining Anxiety

Let us take a second to clearly define anxiety. Anxiety is a state of mind which anticipates fearful situations manifesting in the future. This state of mind leads to a sustained feeling of uneasiness and discomfort, which could potentially lead to a negative impact on day to day activities.

At the face of it, we can deduce from the definition that anxiety is a forward looking phenomenon. It occurs when we foresee future events unfolding unfavourably. There is another clear deduction, at least from my point of view, and one that is likely to cause more anxiety to anyone already anxious.

The deduction is that when left lingering, anxiety has the potential of becoming a self fulfilling prophecy.

Let me explain.

The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy of Anxiety

In an aforementioned statement, we discussed how anxiety could become a hinderance to everyday life. Whenever we are anxious, our thinking gets clouded with hypothetical, disastrous “What ifs”.

“What if I didn’t turn in my presentation on time?”

“What if I took time off and something went sideways?”

“What if I made an attempt and it failed?”

Ask one of these of yourselves at this time. No, seriously, ask it. Given these questions are hypothetical, the most likely response would be an ever-so-slightly elevated emotional response, followed by a sense of relief that this is not reality at this time. (Unless it is, you might want to prepare the presentation ahead of time).

These “what ifs”, and the accompanying elevated emotional response take our focus from the action at hand, which leads to impacted effectiveness.

Inefficient inputs are most likely to result in events unfolding unfavourably. Voila, the self-fulfilling prophecy of anxiety.

The Why Behind Anxiety

All of us fall prey to anxiety, and during one such bouts, I sat and tried to identify, why do we get anxious? My knee jerk response was that because it is forward looking, and we barely have any control over our futures. The uncertainty is just too much to handle at times, especially when the potential aftermath is gloomy.

However, there is one fundamental facet that tends to hide in the shadows.

Anxiety originates when there is too much unknown. Not just about the future, but about ourselves.

Let us understand this facet more deeply. We talked about the number of “What ifs” that contribute to anxiety. There is just so much going on, that we don’t spend enough time on one problem to solve it, and move to the next one. These problems pile up, and when the pile becomes large enough and topples, we get anxious.

Not being able to solve these problems becomes another one to be added to the, now heap, of problems.

And the vicious cycle continues, till we actually sit down, and try to go solve these problems.

What should we do then?

In one of my previous articles named Passion, we talked about the recommendation of execution stemming from a place of calmness. There is a commonality between passion and anxiety. Both result in an elevated emotional response. The obvious recommendation that we can take is to ensure we act calmly.

I have another recommendation. This is a statement I make regularly, not just to others, but myself.

Try to solve one ridiculous problem at a time.

Our lives throw a lot at us, and today, every problem in the world is our problem, thanks to media. We need to sit and pick one problem, work it to the bone, and only then move on to the next one.

If you stuck around this far, thank you for your time. If you enjoyed this, share this with one friend of yours whom you think will benefit from reading this. Thanks for reading, and I will see you in the next one. 🙂