Got Anxiety? Three Coping Resources Anyone Can DO


Dear Real Academics,

Are you feeling anxious? Or have you felt anxious recently?

My bet is you would most likely answer "yes" to at least one of these questions if you have done any of the following activities in the last couple of days: watched the news, engaged in social media, checked emails, talked to another human being about world events, engaged in academic writing (yes, writing anxiety is a real thing).

For today's post, I wanted to provide you with some ways to help deal with anxiety, however big or small. 

Disclaimer: I am not a professional counselor or medical doctor. 

I did, however, find a helpful video by Dr. Olivia Remes from Cambridge University that reminds me of some research I have read regarding academic writing anxiety. 

You can watch her 15-minute TedTalk video and/or learn more about her by clicking on the links at the end of this blog post. Here, I summarize some main ideas from the video:

  • First, anxiety is very real and lots of people unfortunately have anxiety. (The video is pre-pandemic, so it would be interesting to know how statistics have changed regarding how many people have anxiety now compared to then).
  • Second, coping resources are powerful and can trump external situations and circumstances (e.g., poverty, post-traumatic stress).
  • Third, the coping resources are about DOING, which means anyone can DO them. 

So, what are these coping mechanisms? Ready? Here they are. 

Anxiety Coping Mechanism #1: Do something that allows you to feel as if you are in control of your life. 

For example, Dr. Remes says if you are indecisive and not getting things done, then simply just do things badly. 

This idea of doing things badly may sound strange, but it reminded me of a quote by Peter Elbow in his book Writing with Power: Techniques for Mastering the Writing Process. 

In his book Elbow claims that, "The precondition for writing well is being able to write badly and to write when you are not in the mood."

The point of this idea is that aiming for perfection can delay us, doing something badly speeds up action, and once you get going, you can improve as you go along. And...if you are an academic writer (or simply a writer), Elbow's book is a good read:




I personally find it fascinating that Dr. Remes uses this as her first coping strategy to deal with anxiety. 

In fact, in my research, I found that self-efficacy (in light of doing something) is a statistically significant and large predictor of writing anxiety (inverse relationship -- that is, participants with higher self-efficacy reported lower writing anxiety).  

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07294360.2016.1238881

In summary, DOING something is a way to reduce anxiety.


Anxiety Coping Mechanism #2: Forgive yourself.
Dr. Remes explains that people with anxiety think a lot about what they are doing wrong, so be kind to yourself.

My only connection here is to a program at my church called Celebrate Recovery which has helped an incredible number of people with their hurts, hang-ups, failures, addictions, trauma and anything and everything in between. 

Part of the curriculum includes making an inventory of people and events that have caused hurt in the past. The curriculum then leads through a process of forgiving others AND forgiving yourself. 

It is powerful. And I've seen how this process can completely transform people's attitudes and outlooks on life (and, YES, reduce so much anxiety!).


Anxiety Coping Mechanism #3: Have a purpose and meaning in life.
As Dr. Remes wisely states, no amount of work success or money equates to having meaning in life. 

She goes on to say that doing something with someone else in mind gives you a "why" for your existence and helps bear any "how" that comes about in life. (Read that last sentence one more time and ponder it for a few seconds).

Pretty powerful stuff, no? 

I've blogged about meaning (in work/career), so I won't say too much more here. If interested, you can check out one of those pieces here:
https://therealacademics.blogspot.com/2021/08/am-i-finding-meaning-in-my-work.html


In closing, you can: 


I hope this post has been helpful. It has helped me. 

Take a breather, Real Academic.

I challenge you to DO at least one of the three things listed above to reduce any anxiety big or small this week. 

Until next time,

Maggie

www.therealacademics.com



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