Anxiety — a systems approach
or how I went from anxious to self confident
Here’s a controversial thought: people don’t have anxiety where they have a consistent system in place that they trust. Confidence in a system you use blocks anxiety.
Anxiety really only shows up when people don’t have a trusted system.
We don’t have anxiety about simple math, or what the words on a page say, or any of a myriad of other systems that we take for granted. If I ask you to add 3 + 5, that sounds easy. Your ability to read this page is a system.
With this kind of thinking, maybe we can reevaluate what causes us to feel anxious or maybe even depressed and then start to design systems that reverse those feelings.
As an example, I struggled for decades with social anxiety, and believed that being a shy introvert, would always be my lot in life. But then I learned a system for starting conversations, for having conversations with other people, and how to have gratitude for any conversation. Because of systems I can talk with anyone and even enjoy public speaking.
I have seen people reverse their anxiety at talking with strangers, anxiety around the water, anxiety of driving cars, and more. In every case, the reversal happened because they learned and practiced a system.
Learning systems changes the game.
I’ve learned systems for: teaching frightened kids to go under water, for CPR and first aid, for handling sliding cars, for persuading executives,
I’m sure this will not be perfect for everyone. There are always corner cases, but I have seen how learning systems has reversed not only mine but many other peoples anxieties and depressions.
I think it’s worth a shot.
Effective leadership is a system. #40pb