You're Not Anxious, You're Excited

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I have received much wisdom from Jane McGonigal's SuperBetter book, for instance the easiest way to check in with someone using the, "On a scale of 1 to 10, how is your day going?" technique.

One other that I use on a regular basis is to change anxiety/nerves for an upcoming event by merely saying, "I am excited". Jane McGonical explains the science behind it thus:
It turns out that anxiety and excitement are, physiologically, the exact same emotion. Whether you are anxious about something or excited about it, your body responds in a nearly identical “high arousal” state. Based on mind-body science, Harvard Business School researcher and psychologist Alison Wood Brooks has devised an incredibly simple trick to turn anxiety into excitement
....
As soon as you feel your nerves, say I’m excited or Get excited to yourself. Out loud. Say it a few times. I’m excited. Get excited! That’s it—that’s the whole trick. According to Dr. Brooks’s research, this is literally all it takes to make people less anxious, more optimistic, and more successful in solving problems or undertaking stressful tasks.
It seems too easy eh - but I'm here to tell you it works every time.


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