A bit about Anxiety.
I had a blog entitled High Anxiety — which I named after the wonderful Mel Brooks film.
Unfortunately, Blog.Com seems to have become hopelessly blogged down — and is no longer accessible by anyone — including the creator here. I was not anxious enough and trusted that something like Blog.Com would be around forever.
You see – anxiety is there for a GOOD reason sometimes.
Here’s another anxiety goodie: It may be that a MODERATE amount of anxiety — is better than none. Some think that in some situations, anxiety works like this.
This graph shows a situation (variations of which have been demonstrated in research) in which student performance on an exam is optimal for those who are moderately anxious as opposed to NOT anxious; indeed we wouldn’t expect those who were highly anxious to do well, but might be surprised that a little anxiety might actually help.
Remember, anxiety is about energy.
Recall the idiom involving “lighting a match under someone” or “setting a fire under a group of folks.” It might burn a little or threaten such, but will get things moving with certainty.
Anxiety can be your friend — in SOME SITUATIONS, but hardly all, and rarely in excess.
And there are ways to channel it to make it useful.
One of my original quotes (to the best of my knowledge!), from my many years as a therapist is….
“Anxiety makes the most simple things complex. Relaxation makes the most complex simple.”
There are exceptions, but this seems to be the rule — more times than not.
