Harnessing Your Anxiety for Personal Growth

Anxiety doesn't have to be your enemy – it can be harnessed as a powerful energy source that propels you forward rather than holding you back. We explore how reframing your relationship with anxious thoughts can transform them from a perceived curse into a creative superpower.

• Viewing anxiety as a dragon you can ride rather than a monster that devours you
• Using anxiety like solar panels that collect energy to light your path
• Recognizing that anxious people often possess heightened empathy and emotional intelligence
• Acknowledging anxiety openly rather than hiding it or feeling ashamed
• Preparing more thoroughly because of anxiety can lead to greater competence
• Taking small, manageable steps when anxiety feels overwhelming
• Converting nighttime anxiety into creative problem-solving
• Visualizing peaceful scenes like ocean waves to calm racing thoughts
• Understanding that the subconscious mind often solves problems while we sleep
• Seeking professional help when anxiety significantly impairs daily functioning

We are here to help you and sending lots of love and smiles. If you're feeling anxious, reach out to us via text or book a session with us on Zoom.

Chapters

• 0:00 Harnessing Anxiety Like Dragon Reins
• 2:30 Anxiety as Creative Solar Energy
• 4:15 Using Anxiety to Fuel Preparation
• 7:55 Acknowledging Anxiety Without Shame
• 10:20 Creative Solutions for Nighttime Anxiety
• 13:50 Finding Help and Guided Meditation

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Harnessing your anxiety. There's that song, isn't there? My anxiety, exactly, yes, watches me Instead of watching you, your anxiety. What about if you watched your anxiety and you could watch it from a different position, like almost as if you were some kind of an observer, a neutral observer, observing yourself Flying on the wall? Yes, and all the actions that your anxiety you know makes you take, or the actions that you know you're like. How can I say? I'm lost for words at the moment. Help, well, help me the anxiety.

Speaker 1: 0:52

Instead of allowing the anxiety to take hold of you, you grab the anxiety and take it by. Take hold of it. Yeah, so you're harnessing it and you're becoming powerful because of it. Wow, instead of in spite of it, well done, yeah, that is so. You're using your anxiety as if it was energy to thrust you forward into doing, wild coming, what you want to do and become powerful beasts. You know, while you were doing that movement with your hands, you know you were like harnessing, like she was like holding her two hands, like she was holding, you know, the, the horse's muzzle, the muscle, the reins, the reins. I'm sort of like, can't it's afternoon podcast and I'm like, oh, I've gone into some kind of nap mode anyway. Yeah, like you're holding on to the rains, or like holding on to this, the rains, on those dragons that you see in these, you know in these films, and become powerful because of it. Because of it, you know, you can harness that dragon, which could be like your anxiety. You can fly with it and imagine the power that that will give you. Instead of feeling destroyed and upset and overwhelmed and awful because of your anxiety, you're harnessing your anxiety to use it to your advantage, and that's what we're going to be talking about in this week's episode of get real with the english sisters. We are therapists and we're here to help you.

Speaker 1: 2:35

So harnessing the power I always see it was like, like you know, those solar panels you have, yes, so it just got lots of them actually for the garden. Just your anxiety. Imagine your anxiety going into one of those and giving you energy. Oh, I love that. Instead of depriving you of energy, I love that. It's actually giving you energy to do things To be able to see at night. Yeah, because we've installed them now in the garden, on the little garden pathway, and it was always so dark there. Yeah, but now with these lovely little light, they're not little. They're like lampposts, but they've got the solar energy on the top. Now, at night, we have energy and we have their. The pathway is lit up so that we can just walk through it easily without falling over or anything. Well, yeah, that's good, that's good, and so that, in the same way you can you know, like what you were saying you know you don't have to trip up on your anxiety. You can use it to give you light, to give you to light your path in your life.

Speaker 1: 3:39

What I think the people that are do suffer anxiety. Usually it means because you're normally you're quite an empathetic person and you do understand other people, don't you? And you're like you're really in touch with your emotions. So that is being in touch with your emotions and understanding people is like a superpower. So you can use that to your advantage instead of allowing your anxiety maybe to to I don't know how it affects you to be a curse, like I'm free, I'm cursed with the anxiety. No, it can be also seen as a blessing in this case. Yes, because it can be a form of energy, if we think about it. A lot of these very creative people in the past, even people like steve jobs, and that they've all suffered from anxiety but, instead of seeing it just as a curse, they've used it to fuel their creativity or, in spite of it, they managed to go on exactly even it, with this great bouts of. So if we do think about it as the opposite of a curse and we can say, yes, I am an anxious person, what can I do? I can use it as a form of energy. Well, yeah, and so you can turn it around and say, okay, I'm feeling anxious about this, but I'm still going to do it, and I'm just going to do it maybe a bit slower. You might need to ask for help, yes, and I'm just going to do it, maybe a bit slower. You might need to ask for help, yes, so you can get through it and use it and you can probably see things a bit different to what the people around you can see. You have a different perspective on life.

Speaker 1: 5:17

Usually, when you do suffer from anxiety, yes, which can help you. It can feel overwhelming, but it can also help you. Yes, and we do know this exactly. Yes, you are right. It can also, and it can also encourage you to say, like study or learn something new, because if you're anxious about some something. Someone that doesn't suffer from anxiety might just say oh, I'm just gonna go and do that anyway. Yeah, I just wing it. Yeah, but if you do, you might be more. You know, you might have the eye to curate something, to feel that you're not quite competent at that, and then go and study a little bit more for it and then you'll become you know, it becomes part of you like a almost like an unconscious competence, as to say, you know you become very competent at it, at an unconscious level where it's just easy for you to perform that task because you were anxious at the very beginning.

Speaker 1: 6:15

So sometimes you know being anxious isn't necessarily no, it's not necessarily a bad thing or something you can't use to your advantage. Obviously, if it's, if you're super anxious, if you're really anxious and it's stopping you from doing things, then you do. You do need to ask for help, yes, but if it's a level of anxiety that's just making you like, stopping you from from doing what you want to do or being who you want to be, or like if you have social anxiety it's stopping you from going out, you can also look from traveling. Yeah, you can look at it in a different way and say, okay, it's going to give me energy now and okay, maybe I'm not going to go to the himalayas and and walk up them or go to nepal or go somewhere really exotic, but I can maybe take a trip. I can take a trip to brighton, which is a little seaside resort in england, or somewhere near you, and you can use it to your advantage. You can harness it and say, okay, I'm gonna take small steps, I'm gonna be your friend, I'm, I'm, I'm going to harness you. Yeah, I'm gonna harness you and I'm going to ride this wave as to say you know, this way, I think most of us are anxious about things.

Speaker 1: 7:33

A lot of us manage to cover it up and we just don't acknowledge it and don't say it. Yes, that's true, just uh, what's it called power through it, but I think the more, the more powerful you you are is when you you can admit to it, yeah, you can acknowledge it, and you can say I'm actually feeling really quite anxious about that, and even just verbalizing it and saying it out loud, perhaps to a friend or even to yourself. That can already be step one for those of you who may be suffering from anxiety and may not be even realizing it, but I think if you're not, if you know, you're probably aware of it if you're listening to this kind of podcast already. But you know, sometimes you can be feeling more anxious about something and just know that it's normal as well.

Speaker 1: 8:20

My husband he's never normally said anything like this. Yesterday he was saying he didn't know where to park because he was going into Rome. He didn't know where to park. He didn't know what to park because he was going into Rome. He didn't know where to park, he didn't know what train to get, and he was getting quite worked up about it. And I said you're sounding like me, are you getting really anxious about this now? And then he started laughing and he goes yeah, I suppose I am. I also get anxious about parking, and driving into new areas where I don't know and I'm not confident about that Also gives me anxiety. But I acknowledge it and I say I get anxious about that. And so what I do is I prepare. If I know I've got to drive somewhere which I don't know, I'll study the map, I'll look at it, I'll make sure I help, I get help, you know, with the google maps or with whatever, whatever app I'm using and I'll be prepared, but I still do. I get anxiety from it and I and I openly say it to everybody yeah, I think acknowledging it, because in the end he said he realized that it doesn't make me weaker character for him, because he doesn't normally do this or say it. You're right, so it was completely out of character. So it was. It was curious to notice that he was actually getting more in touch with his own emotions, probably because he's being more around you now, probably, and he's he's spending more time with you now, isn't he? Yeah, he's learning to be more in touch with his emotions.

Speaker 1: 9:41

You can harness your anxiety. You can make it become your friend. There's no reason why you can't, is there? Well, I mean totally your friend. Yes, yeah, because that's if you didn't, that's a good way of thinking about it as well. I mean, like the solar panels, yes, if you didn't have anxiety, they're definitely friendly.

Speaker 1: 10:03

You have to think what would replace anxiety creativity, which would be finding creative solutions to my problem or my what's making me anxious. That would be the, the, the solution would be creativity. So I'd want to harness more creativity than feeling anxiety. I'd want to feel more creative, which is what I do when I get anxious. I start thinking what kind of creative solution can I find for this problem that's giving me anxiety sometimes I just get anxiety, even at night, you know. When I close my eyes, I start thinking about all the things I've got to do, and I'm a therapist, so it's not we're immune to this. We studied it because we felt anxious right at the very beginning of our you know, of our careers, and that's the reason why we also decided to get into this line of work, exactly so, and that's very, that's very, very common.

Speaker 1: 11:00

So I know, when I experience anxiety, sometimes at night, because I start having recurring thoughts, I'll start saying the dreaded thoughts. I'll start thinking, oh, tomorrow I've got to do that thing, and, and then I might find a creative solution for it, and and then, okay, I found a creative solution for it, and then it'll come back up. So what I do in that case is I say thank you. I try and relax, you know, take a few deep breaths, say thank you, brain, I found a creative solution. Now I think I can let it go, just let it go, and I take another few deep breaths and I do manage to let it go. What helps me is thinking about the sea waves and the rolling in and gentle rolling out of the waves. So, like your happy place, I go back to my happy place and I focus a lot on that at night, on the waves rolling in and rolling back out, and I can imagine them and smell the sea smell and the sand on my feet, and that does actually help me, you kind of meditation. Yes, I find that helps me once I found the creative solution.

Speaker 1: 12:10

Because if I don't, then I'll find I'll find myself thinking sometimes there isn't a creative, no solution. So you really do have to say goodbye, let go, yes, and just say, okay, I'll deal with you in the morning. Yes, yes, you have to let it go. You have to sleep on it. Yes, they say, sleep on things.

Speaker 1: 12:31

Your unconscious mind often finds a solution for you, yes, without you having to do anything at all. That is very, very true. And how often has that happened? So many times? Saying wouldn't exist if it didn't. No, that's why people say sleep. Don't think the saying wouldn't exist if it didn't happen. That's why people say sleep on it.

Speaker 1: 12:46

Don't make a decision now, just leave it for now and do something completely different. Distract your mind. Do something else. Watch a film or something, something that's going to take your mind off it. Obviously Don't watch a film that's going to be about your problem, because I've done that before and that hasn't worked. No, watch something that's going to be light and airy and maybe funny, if possible, to give you, you know that, that humor that helps. And then you know, tell your brain if it keeps on the the questions keep on popping up.

Speaker 1: 13:25

Put the thought into the solar panel and allow it to create energy for you from tomorrow. Excellent, and the solar panel, yes, yes, I agree with that completely. Put the thought into the solar panel, let it go in there, as if it's like brewing air sunshine, gathering, gathering, gathering, gathering this lovely energy that will then be able to shine a light in another moment of darkness for you. It will be able to lead the way, exactly because there is no light without dark. Is there the dark? And then we need both of them.

Speaker 1: 14:03

We do so, we do need, we need the moments. We need the moments of anxiety, which also make you reflect. It makes you reflect on your life and, obviously, if you're like what we said before, if you're suffering from anxiety to the extent that you're having panic attacks and you know it's getting it's it's getting in the way of you living a normal life. You need to seek just get some help, please, because there's so many techniques, tools and techniques to help you that are available now, thank goodness, and one of them is I think the main one is mindfulness. So, if anything, go and listen to a guided meditation we have many of them on our YouTube channel or to somebody else, anybody you like that just you know Google guided meditation and go and listen to one of those, because they really can help you relax and unwind and your subconscious and unconscious mind will take over and you don't have to do anything at all. You just have to listen to the voices Exactly. It's very relaxing. It's something that can really really help Incredibly, actually.

Speaker 1: 15:16

Yeah, so as a song, they've harnessed the anxiety to make loads of money because it's the number one hit. Yes, you do that as well. And, uh, let us know how you get on. Let us know if you're feeling anxious, we can help you. To be right to us on tech, give us a text. We can maybe give you, help you in some way, or you can book a session with us if you like, on zoom. We are here to help you and sending you lots of love and smiles from the English sisters. Bye.