Do YOU know the difference?

In my STUDY, SAVOR, & SUPPORT Each Other CHAT☕️🍵, we’re doing a deep-dive into our newest Book Club selection! This week is Chapter 1 of BEYOND ANXIETY: Curiosity, Creativity, and Finding Your Life’s Purpose by Martha Beck.

In Chapter 1: The Nuts & Bolts of Why We Go Juts and Want to Bolt, MB distinguishes between anxiety & fear.

Fear is a surge “meant to hit hard, get us moving, and then disappear…. real fear tells us what to do while giving us the speed and strength we need to do it.”

Unlike fear, anxiety “is more like being haunted. It pulls our attention inward to worrisome thoughts and fantasies, away from our actual physical situation in the present.” Often offering nothing constructive to point us in the right direction. And, ironically, anxiety can increase even in situations where we are safe.

Is your anxiety switch stuck in the “On” position?

We like to think that us humans are the superior species and, in many ways, we are at the top. But, most of what we think and do is actually driven by our emotions — not necessarily reality.

It helps to know the anatomy of the Beast.

Fear and anxiety originate in the two almond-shaped amygdala, one in each side of the two hemispheres of our brain.

But the two hemispheres affect us in strikingly different ways.

According to MB, the left hemisphere of our brains tends to react to every threat in two ways:

“(1) it comes up with explanations that justify our feeling of fear, and

(2) it figures out ways we might take control of the situation.”

Problem is: we can go overboard.

Unlike other animals, our brains have the capacity to go beyond remembering the information we need to survive. It can also generate verbal stories about what we’ve done or need to do. And our imaginations can go wild, expanding upon our stories, real or imagined.

What’s more, our anxiety can make these thoughts seem perfectly logical and reasonable — even if they’re not. And the more we get stuck in a state of anxiety, the more those thoughts churn, over and over, in a terrible feedback loop that travels from the neocortex to the amygdala, making us anxious once again.

It’s that double arrow (or triple or quadruple arrow, etc.) that really gets us. If we’re not careful, bad thoughts turn into an anxiety monster feeding frenzy. Especially when our brains experience it all, as if it’s really happening. This is what MB aptly calls the “Anxiety Spiral.”

️🙋‍♀️🙋🏻‍♀️🙋🏾‍♂️ Raise your hand if you recognize yourself in this description.

Sadly, I do. 🤣

MB tells us a funny and frightful story about her and her friend having survived close encounters two leopards. Followed by a long list of all the ways their anxiety could’ve caused them to worry and catastrophize what else could go wrong. You can quickly see how such anxious thoughts would drive any person mad.

It sounds ridiculous in the context of a one-off encounter with a leopard.

But, the sad thing is: it’s common in the context of our everyday worries — about our work, our home, our health, our relationships with others, our relationship with ourself. The endless list of what-ifs goes on and on.

Should we use force? Or make friends with our foe?

Every human on earth knows what it’s like to try, try, and try again to muscle our way out of an anxiety spiral. After all, forcing works at least some of the time.

But, many times, it doesn’t. As MB points out, our brains are evolutionarily programmed to have a “negativity bias” that overemphasizes the negative threat because doing so will give us the best chance to survive.

What’s worse, the left-hemisphere of our brains has a tendency to ignore any facts or evidence that might threaten or disprove its version of the “truth.”

The right-hemisphere bypasses the Anxiety Monster.

We can take advantage of the right-hemisphere of our brains that’s less about logic and analysis, and more about perception, emotion, and intuition.

The right hemisphere can ground us in the here and now.

Via our senses.

Or it can use our imaginations to transport us to another place or time — one that’s much more relaxing and emotionally-regulating.

Either way, we get to experience some respite from the anxiety spiral that the left-hemisphere wants to trap us in.

Do it well, and we loosen its grip. Making space, so we can let reason in.

The key is to notice fear once it arrives, and take corrective (creative) action, as soon as our thoughts begin to grow into an “Anxiety Spiral.”

Now, take a Mindful Minute to reflect on your life:

⭐️ Do you think you’re left-hemisphere dominant? Or do you stay mostly in your right-hemisphere?

⭐️ For our Journaling, let’s reflect on our past week. Can we identify a time when we let our worries spin out of control, into an Anxiety Spiral?

⭐️ What’s the likely cause? External pressure (like societal/familial/peer pressure, or a work-related performance evaluation)? Or, perhaps it’s something internal (like feeling we don’t have enough time, or feeling unworthy or unlovable)?

⭐️ Come up with one or two Creative methods to end your specific Anxiety Spiral. Imagine yourself stuck ruminating in that anxiety, and rate your anxiety level. Now, give your Creative task a try. Rate your emotions after. Did you notice any improvement?

👭 Do you want to enlist the help of a Fellow Creative, to help keep you accountable?

Together, you can commit to applying your chosen Creative method to quit your next Anxiety Spiral.

A simple note to tell a friend, “I was anxious about X, so I did Y today,” may be just what we need, to remember we can use our Creativity to kick our Anxiety Spirals to the curb.

👭 If so, in the Comments or in the CHAT, tell us what you’d like to accomplish this upcoming week so we can all support & cheer you on.

Are you ready to conquer your Anxiety, by being CREATIVE with me?

Then,

Let’s TRUST in our Right-Brained Capacity to rescue us.

The Right-Brained Creative in me honors & respects the Right-Brained Creative in each of you,

Marisa

⭐️ Remember, we don’t have to figure everything out, all alone. ⭐️

We can find solutions, together!

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