You can start to lose motivation and wonder if you’ll ever be good enough to fight it off.
Anxiety is what happens as a result of things occurring in your life that leave you feeling unsure and confused.
If it makes you feel this way, how could it possibly be used to your advantage?
Well, your anxiety is actually a warning sign trying to protect you from getting hurt.
It is there for a reason and it allows you to be more aware of your surroundings.
Feeling anxious isn’t the greatest, but it doesn’t have to mean it’s the end of the world.
And anxiety has a lot of benefits to it, despite what you might think. And there are plenty of ways you can start taking your life back when you have it.
Imagine if you could become more in tune with your anxiety and use it to your advantage. You’d probably feel relieved and much happier, right?
Here’s how you can use anxiety to your advantage
Start by Channeling your Anxiety
What typically ends up happening is we feel anxious and immediately want to get rid of it. It’s very uncomfortable.
Worrying all the time isn’t a pleasant feeling.
Anxiety feeds on itself when you give it negative thoughts. You can definitely make your anxiety worse, or you can choose to channel it.
You do this by looking at it from a different perspective. Start asking questions. What is it trying to tell you?
This situation is making you feel anxious, but why?
What is causing it? What are the cold hard facts about what you’re going through? What are you making up in your head? What conclusions are you jumping to?
What are your worries about the situation? Does this make it any more or less true?
Start channeling that anxiety.
Think of your anxiety as a wild horse. You’re working on lassoing it and gaining back control.
Bring Attention to Finding Your Core Values
Ignoring your own core values is a direct result of feeling anxious. Your internal values are what make up everything you do and believe in.
Core values are your guided compass, telling you which direction to go in life.
When you ignore those values, you start to lose sight of your own purpose.
It’s easy to stop listening to your values when you have society throwing its own opinion down your throat.
You then start living a life that is on a completely different path than what you wanted.
Anxiety is what forms as a result of ignoring your core values. You can use your anxiety to your advantage by digging up your core values again.
The rewards you get from listening to your core values are:
- Feeling less anxious
- Being more at peace with who you are
- Living an authentic life
- Feeling more confident in your actions
The downsides of not listening to your core values are:
- Feeling discontent
- Relying on unhealthy coping strategies to get you through uncomfortable moments
- Living an unfulfilling life
- Not having a purpose or direction in life
Your values keep you in line with how you truly want to live your life. Your anxiety is a signal telling you that you’re not aligning with your values.
Listen to that signal, it means something needs to change for you to feel better!
Use Anxious Energy to Help Enhance Your Performance.
Whenever I used to have to get up and give a speech, my hands started sweating and my heart would race. I’d get super uncomfortable and felt like I couldn’t even swallow.
It’s as though my anxiety was taking control over my body.
A way I have learned to use anxiety to my advantage is by tuning into the energy it gives me.
It takes some practice, but you can allow that anxious energy to benefit you in a big way.
Yes, you will still feel anxious and scared.
However, you can go one step further and allow it to guide you. If you have to get up and give a speech, channel that anxious energy into the importance of what your speech is about.
What you’re doing is important, it’s why you feel anxious in the first place. Your anxiety is actually a sign that what you’re doing matters a lot.
Don’t fight it. Go easy on yourself and just ride out the anxious feelings.
Which helps build your mental strength, each time you work with your anxiety.
Develop a Stronger Mind-Body Connection
Your mind and body go hand in hand. They may feel separate, but how you treat your body results in how good you feel psychologically. And vice versa.
Your body feels the emotions your brain is experiencing. When your mind is on a different level from your body, it brings out feelings of anxiety.
This can lead to a tired body, stressed out mind, and little energy to fight off negative thoughts.
You can use your anxious thoughts to your advantage by developing a stronger mind-body connection.
Some ways you can do this are:
- Practicing yoga and/ or meditation
- Taking a walk out in nature
- Stretching
- Eating a balanced diet
Being anxious allows you to understand what works and what doesn’t for you personally.
You Focus More on the Important Things
When you experience anxious thoughts, you start to see the world in a different way.
You appreciate the little things, like coffee in the morning or staying indoors.
The simplest tasks are enough for you, because otherwise it triggers a lot of anxious feelings.
Your anxiety allows you to focus on more important things, because you don’t have the patience or tolerance for the silly things.
Like large groups of people, FOMO, or doing things just to fit in.
Instead you appreciate things like a fictional book, inspiring quotes, or song lyrics that really “get” you.
You develop stronger relationships with the people around you because you are more in tune with your own emotions.
This allows you to understand what they’re going through on a deeper level.
You’re a sensitive person, which allows to you be kinder to other people.
You also practice gratitude for the small things because those are the things that matter most.
It Helps you Let Go of Being Perfect
The pressures of life can become too much at times.
Trying to be perfect at everything just isn’t possible. And your anxiety will be the first one to tell you by knocking you on your ass.
Have you noticed that when you try to do everything right in other people’s eyes, you start to hate yourself more and feel less worthy?
That’s because you are trying too hard to be perfect.
And your anxiety will make it so you can’t continue living your life that way. It’s signaling to you that you have to stop pleasing others.
You can stop taking everything so personally by learning to let things go.
Anxiety is strong and powerful. And this reason is why you can’t be a perfectionist when you have it. It physically will not let you.
You just have to learn to let it go and adjust your level of perfect. Instead of working so hard to make it perfect, you learn what is good enough.
And that is an insanely valuable lesson to learn in life.
Moving Forward
Your anxiety is a gift, even if it doesn’t always feel like it. And you might hate me right now for saying that.
Especially if it prevents you from doing the things you enjoy. It causes a lot of fear and tension in your life.
But it is part of you for a reason. To make you more compassionate and caring. And to give you a stronger insight into life.
That makes your life more fulfilling, when you can learn to use it to your advantage.
I personally am grateful for my own anxiety because it’s made me stronger.
I have to take personal days more often and put more effort in, but I am rewarded with a richer life.
I wouldn’t trade it for the world, even if it does open the door for more suffering when I don’t listen to it.
When you start to see your anxiety as more than just a burden, it can benefit you in many ways. I hope this has possibly given you a new perspective and helped relieve some of the pressure anxiety causes.
