The answer that overcomes anxiety

Today I would like to reflect a little on anxiety, and one simple yet powerful way to move beyond it.

This is probably the ‘problem’ that I see most often, and it underlies so many of the reasons why people see me in my Melbourne Hypnotherapy clinic in Balwyn, or work with me on Skype.

What is often true is that there is a continual ‘questioning’ of what is going to happen.  The clients with anxiety will often project their worst fears into the future, and expect them to come true.

They manage the ‘risk’ of these terrible futures actually happening by continually asking ‘what if’ questions.

But here is the thing – clients running anxiety are often ‘world champions’ at ASKING the ‘what if ‘ negative question.  However, they often NEVER attempt to answer it.

Even the Dali Lama would be anxious if he kept asking himself all sorts of negative questions, and just left them hanging there.

If you find yourself asking the ‘what if’ question (as an example “what if I am not good enough?”) then follow these simple steps:

1. STOP.

2. Ask yourself if that is a valid and realistic question.  Often this collapses the problem as it becomes clear that the question itself is not plausible.

3.  Answer it!  And if you cannot answer it, list what you would need to find out to answer it.

As simple as this sounds, it is incredibly powerful.

Answering the ‘what if’ question does some important things:

•It demonstrates that you have OPTIONS.

•It connects you to your RESOURCES and STRENGTHS

•It stops the question floating around, loaded up with fear, remaining more scary because it was not answered.

Try it and see what happens.

If you find yourself asking ‘what if’ questions, then follow this procedure.

What happened?

How did it change your anxiety?

What did you do or notice that was different?

Please let me know how you got on!

Live Well

Phil.