When we think of anxiety, our minds instantly go to something negative, and that should be avoided at all costs. However, anxiety might not necessarily always be a bad thing. In a May 2022 interview with McKinsey Global Publishing, Dr. Tracy Dennis-Tiwary, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Hunter College, talks about how we can redefine our relationship with anxiety so that it works for and not against us. Dennis-Tiwary believes that anxiety is largely misunderstood and that we need to change our mindset when it comes to dealing with it. This feeling of nervousness and unease is not a breakdown in our emotional well-being but rather a useful tool that can help us survive and be innovative and find meaning. “We mental health professionals have unintentionally given people damaging information about anxiety,” says Dr. Dennis-Tiwary. In the interview, she goes on to say that there are two commonly held fallacies about anxiety. First, it is always a debilitating experience, and second, any anxiety experience is a malfunction.
Dr. Dennis-Tiwary believes that if we view anxiety as debilitating, then we must approach it as something to be prevented or eradicated, but that can actually make things worse. That the more we tend to avoid negative emotions, the more they tend to fester and become uncontrollable. Instead, we should try to view these feelings as opportunities that allow us to think about the future and that they allow us to appreciate the good while learning from the bad. They can also inspire feelings of hope.
The other commonly held belief is that anxiety is a malfunction in our emotional state and needs to be fixed. Instead, it should be viewed as a source of strength. We would do this by shifting our mindset. Instead of a view of weakness, we need to think of anxiety as a push to adapt and grow from our current situation. “While anxiety can often be extreme, that doesn’t mean that it’s a disorder,” says Dennis-Tiwary. “It’s not broken. It’s doing work for us.” She goes on to say that anxiety is part of being human. It is apprehension about some uncertainty that has yet to happen and that the future can be negative, positive, or both. Anxiety can actually be viewed as an advantage that may give us an opportunity to think about possible outcomes and course corrections. It’s not a failure to experience joy but rather an early warning system.
“A smoke alarm analogy is helpful: if one goes off at home, you wouldn’t put in earplugs and move to another part of the house where you can’t hear it. At the very least, you’d check the batteries or see if there really is a fire. When we think of anxiety this way, that changes everything about how we face anxious moments, whether they’re controllable or not,” says Dennis-Tiwary.
So, rather than viewing anxiety as something to be avoided, try to view it as a signal to take action or prepare for a coming event. Feelings of anxiousness tell us we care about something, so use them as a guide rather than suppressing them. They can signal that it is time to think about a possible scenario and be adaptable. If we rethink our thoughts on anxiety in general, we might see that it can be used positively and can serve us.
Research has shown that there are biochemical changes that come with anxiety that can be used to our advantage. “When we’re anxious, we are also more reward-focused. We have higher levels of dopamine in our brain, which we typically associate with experiencing something pleasurable or even addiction. Why does anxiety trigger dopamine? Because dopamine helps us move toward positive outcomes.
It also triggers our social bonding hormone, oxytocin, which increases when we’re with someone we love or when a mother nurses her child. When we’re anxious, that hormone shoots up. Why? Because social connection is one of the best ways to manage our anxiety. We actually outsource our coping because social buffering is a very real phenomenon. Being able to reach out to others to whom we feel connected and who support us helps us dial down anxiety and use it in more positive ways. Anxiety, when we see it as a way to navigate uncertainty, carries its own solutions,” says Dr. Dennis-Tiwary.
When anxiety becomes negative, we need to immerse ourselves in the present, as anxiety is an emotion tied to the future. When things become overwhelming, hit pause and take a breath. Take a moment to understand that whatever you are actually anxious about hasn’t happened yet and may never happen. Look at what is within your power to control and make course corrections if possible. Now that we have a better understanding of what anxiety is and is not, we can use it as an early warning system for course corrections for things we can change or as a source of resilience for things we cannot.
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