Wednesday 21 February 2018

Some thoughts on anxiety and overthinking when running your own business

Are you struggling with anxiety? Does overthinking drive you crazy? Cool!

Anxiety and overthinking are symptoms of a healthy brain. It may seem strange but it is true. Our brains have the best intentions: they stress over the same problems because they are trying to help. They think they are doing us a favour. They stress over the same problem over and over again precisely because they recognise this is something important and they are trying to provide us with a solution.

What goes wrong, then?

YOUR BRAIN IS A COMPUTER

Let us imagine that our brain is a computer. A computer can help us but in order to do so we must give it a problem. But giving a problem is not enough; we must express the problem in a way the computer understands it, namely in a way that is solvable. This is the perfect trick to make our brains actually work for us, not against us. In other words, if we feed our brains with anxiety, we will not get any results at all since our computer-brain will not have anything to work with. But our computer-brain will thrive on a well-expressed practical question.

HOW TO GET SOLUTIONS

Our brains thrive on problems; problem solving is their thing. So, next time you are facing a problem, try to rephrase it in a more concrete way. If you give your brain a concrete question, you are going to start getting answers. Your brain is going to invest all its energy not in providing worst-case scenarios or anxiety-filled thoughts, but in providing practical solutions. Your anxiety and overthinking then are going to work for your benefit: all this energy will come to your rescue. Still, worrying will not disappear magically; but this trick is going to help. If it helped me, the most anxious and overthinking woman ever, it will surely help you too! (However, if you feel too stressed, seek professional help).

AN EXAMPLE

Imagine you have to prepare lots of invoices but you have little time for this task. The idea of preparing invoices like this would make you anxious, right? Your mind would obsess with this boring task worrying over the details. And starting the task would take forever, as well.

You could use this energy, though, to your own advantage. Instead of trying to stop this kind of obsessive thinking, you could actually make it work for you. Switch into problem-solving mode. Obsess, yes, but this time with concrete questions.

Notice what happens when you give your mind a concrete question. If you feed your brain with questions such as how to get started with your invoice task, how to do it better, what music to listen to while you are doing the task, you will start getting answers. And what is more? When you put your brain in problem-solving mode, the worrying will stop. Try it and see for yourself if it works. And remember, an anxious mind is a healthy mind.

Thanks for reading!

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