Reduce your levels of anxiety and rumination – starting today – with advice from author Monica C. Parker who shares some simple steps to regain inner calm.
NEGATIVE EMOTIONS such as fear, sadness, shame and stress are all too common features of daily life. And when these “worr y ing emotions” become entrenched and persistent, they can develop into clinical anxiety.
Globally, it’s estimated that almost 285 million people have an anxiety disorder, and more than 8 million of those live here in the UK, where women are twice as likely to experience anxiety than their male British
But what if we could swap worry for a more helpful emotion, such as wonder? Wonder is an emotional experience comprised of four elements: openness to ex per ience, curiosit y, absorption and awe. As a mixed emotion, we can experience wonder during positive times in our life, but we can also find it in tough times, making it a highly accessible emotion, especially when stressed.
Wonder offers so many benefits, not just psycholog ically but physiolog ically and spirit ually. It makes us more humble, less materialistic, more generous and better counterparts. In simplest terms, when lef t unchecked, these negative emotions make us sick both mentally and physica l ly. From a psycholog ica l point of view, anxiety triggers our fight-or-flight response, diminishing focus, memory and mental flexibility. These sorts of emotions also have a biological impact, stimulating our proinflammatory c y tokines, which can give rise to hea lth issues, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, depression, rheumatoid arthritis, asthma and Alzheimer’s. communit y members. Wonder also decreases stress and makes us feel like we have more time. And if those aren’t reasons enough to motivate us to want more wonder, researchers have found a link between people who ex per ience wonder and lower blood pressure, lower stress hormones and decreased proinflammatory cytokines, suggesting a direct pathway between wonder and better health. Here are a few ideas on how to tamp down the anxiety and ramp up the wonder in your life...
BE PRESENT
Addiction, OCD and mood disorders such as depression and anxiety share a central feature: a narrow self-focus and intrusive rumination. For anxiety, that rumination manifests as a sense of failing, catastrophising and guilt. And while worry can serve an emotional-regulatory purpose in problem-solving, when worry becomes persistent, it tips into the realm of rumination. We want to avoid that spiralling, stubborn negative narrative everyone has to some d
