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How Anxious Reappraisal Can Help Turn Anxiety into Productivity (theatlantic.com)
87 points by ingve on March 24, 2016 | hide | past | favorite | 6 comments


Its an interesting approach to anxiety which at least for me could actually work pretty well I think. I'm naturally quite pessimistic and will lean towards thinking of all the ways things can go wrong, for example right now I'm in the final stages of moving jobs - notice has been given, I've got an end date at my current place, and just waiting for the final reference checks to be done for the new place, and I'm shockingly anxious about it all. New job, new people, new technology to learn, and a pretty tight schedule once I start.

Thinking of it in light of this article I can easily look at it as me being excited about the move. New job, new people, new technology to learn, and I get to jump right in and get going. I'm going to be using this approach more I think!


Wow, looking forward to my next panic attack to see if I can subvert it toward something beneficial haha


You're already doing it.


+1

I used something like this before a presentation in front of a crowd recently. It almost felt like I wasn't giving enough room for any of the anxious thoughts that would've forced me into anxious mode. Any time I thought any anxious thoughts, they got pushed out by "I'm going to do well and that's that." I was completely shocked afterwards at how well I'd done (from my pov), but it's definitely been great in learning just a tiny extra bit about myself for self improvement purposes.


Works for me... I'm fairly intovert and used this approach in the lead up to my first professional speaking gig last year :)


This is pretty good advice and I've had some personal success with it, my problem is I get anxious over really minor situations.

Simple conversations with people, too many people being in a room, stuff that I really don't need to be amped for, I just don't want to feel like I should run away as fast as my sprinter sticks will go.




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