Monday Moment: The Question That Interrupts Anxiety

Anxiety often shows up as a stream of questions:
What if this goes badly? What will people think? What if I mess up?

In this Monday Moment, Tania shares a simple shift that can interrupt the anxiety loop. Instead of trying to force positive thinking, try asking a curiosity question. Engaging the creative part of the brain can shift attention away from threat and toward possibility.

Sometimes one small question can change the direction your mind starts looking.

Transcript

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Happy Monday. I was reminded of something recently that changed the way I handle anxiety. I. Years ago, before hosting my very first webinar, I got so anxious that I stopped sleeping and barely ate for a couple of days leading up to the event. The fear just felt enormous and I tried several of the things that people often recommend when anxiety shows up. Breath work, EFT, tapping, exercise, and a few other things, and each one of them helped a little and then the anxiety would come right back. I also tried affirmations because at the time everyone was talking about them, and I am guessing, you know, the types of statements I'm talking about, things like saying I'm confident or I'm calm, or I can do this, and apparently they work even better if you say them well looking in the mirror. But if I'm honest, affirmations have never really worked well for me, especially when I am super anxious. When my brain is in full panic mode, saying something like I'm confident feels a little bit like putting a bandage on a hemorrhage. I almost said hemorrhoid there. That would've been unfortunate, but you get the idea anyway. Thankfully, a friend suggested something surprisingly simple. Instead of telling yourself something you don't quite believe, try asking a question that sparks curiosity. For example, how could this actually be fun? Or how might this go better than I expect? Or even how might I grow from this experience? When you ask a question like that, something interesting happens. Instead of arguing with the anxious voice in your head, you give your brain a job to do. It actually starts searching for answers. Now I'm not a neuroscientist, but many people who study the mind talk about how anxiety and creativity rely on different parts of the brain. Anxiety scans for threats. It's constantly asking things like what could go wrong. Creativity, on the other hand, looks for possibilities and the moment. You ask a curiosity question, your brain has to move in that direction. It can't stay fully focused on the threat while it's also trying to generate possibilities at the same time. So instead of staying stuck in questions like, what if this goes badly? What will people think? Or what if I mess up? You can shift your mind in a different direction. Just ask a curiosity based question. Things like, how could this actually go better than I expect? Or how might this experience stretch me in a good way? Or even, how can I make this fun? That's one of my favorites. Your brain will still search for answers because that's what it does, but now it's searching for possibilities instead of threats. So. If anxiety shows up this week, maybe try this pause and ask a different kind of question. You might be surprised where your brain goes when you point it in a new direction. Okay, have a good one.