From fear to a new life: learn to manage your condition

Notice what state you are in right now. Are you too active and continue to impulsively buy everything in stores, «in reserve»? Or are you in a state of «freezing», when the body has a mixture of tension, contraction and insensibility, thoughts are inhibited and there is a feeling of detachment, of being turned off?

Both of these options take energy and distance you from action. And the longer you stay in these moods, the lower you will go down the escalator of opportunity. But how to run it in the opposite direction?

STEP 1. Release excess control

In the wild, a monkey can’t stop looking at a predator. Her attention is literally riveted to the python, but that is why she becomes his prey. This is a built-in program that gives us the illusion that if we keep an eye on everything that happens, we will stay safe. In reality, constantly watching the news, we get only a difficult emotional state and inadequate reactions.

Take a deep breath and as you exhale let go of anxious thoughts that are out of your control. Ask yourself: what can I influence right now?

You can definitely limit the news, engage in physical activity, improve sleep and nutrition, support loved ones, give up the role of a victim, choose a life of love. 

STEP 2. Find motivation

Sigmund Freud said: «Resistance is a force that maintains a painful state.» And now it has the vast majority.

Particularly inventive resisters spend all their energy on drawing as many people as possible into a state of anxiety. If you find yourself a pawn in this game and you don’t like it, there is one non-trivial way. Imagine a cemetery. Where are you there? What is your position there? Of course, you can endlessly procrastinate if you’re lying there. But if you came there on your own feet and are just walking, you can leave and find more suitable conditions.

Understanding that life is one, and time is the only irreplaceable resource, can be the best motivation for real action.

STEP 3. Create a resource environment

If there are a lot of frightened and depressed people around you, then you will continue to be afraid together — this is how the collective unconscious works.

Therefore, an important next step will be the search for an alternative resource environment, consisting of those who are in a stable emotional state. 

Do not keep your condition inside, talk about it in such communities live or online. Then your neural connections will automatically adjust to calm and stable people.

In such an environment, faith in oneself turns on much faster, strengths are highlighted, a vision of the next steps and a desire to act appear. 

STEP 4. Remember your strengths

It is important not just to switch to a calm state, but to start doing something. 

To do this, remember what difficult situations have been in your life. What qualities helped you cope with them? Maybe you overcame difficulties thanks to your determination, perseverance, creativity, desire to live, faith in yourself?

Write out a list of your strengths and realize that you have them available to you. You can feel them in your body right now, activate them with your attention and begin to act.

STEP 5. «Turn on» your hero

Change your attitude to what is happening and imagine yourself the hero of a movie. You find yourself in the proposed circumstances, you need to find a solution and inspire other people with this.

Remember how the characters at the moment of crisis went through an internal transformation, met with other characters, overcame obstacles and entered a new life.

From this state, you will be able to generate the maximum number of actions. And actions, in turn, are sources of opportunities that will help you not only stabilize your position, but also bring it to a plus even in such conditions.

And remember: hard times produce strong people. It is in your power to make this choice — to perceive what is happening as a signal to wake up your sleeping power!