Last time we learned about the difference between anxiety and fear, and also learned about the dynamics of the development of anxiety. Today we are talking about what problem anxiety helps solve and how to use it correctly. Why is anxiety necessary? In situations where we may be threatened by an unknown danger, our body triggers the anxiety reaction as a state in which we can be collected and ready for problems , if they do happen to us. Normally, any new context is a potential opportunity for an unknown danger. Therefore, situations in which we have not been before cause us a state of anxiety. The psyche plays it safe and prefers to be collected until the novelty becomes learned, and therefore safe. Description of the problemPeople mistakenly perceive anxiety as a warning that it is better for them not to lean out of their safety (comfort) zone: - Since I’m worried, it means it’s most likely dangerous there, so I’d better stay in the comfort zone - everything is predictable and understandable here But anxiety, in fact, is just a uniform, special clothing, chain mail, in which only one can enter a new context. Anxiety, as it were, says: “I see that you want to try yourself in something new.” Take me with you, maybe it will be dangerous there. Then I'll be useful. And if it turns out to be safe there, then I will leave and not bother you. Metaphorically, you can imagine a person on a spaceship. He expressed interest in going into outer space, and they begin to put a spacesuit on him. At this moment he thinks: “Since they put this thing on me, it must be very dangerous there. Which means going into outer space is a bad idea.” After these thoughts, the person politely refuses his desire and returns to his cabin. The mistake is that the person perceives his spacesuit as a warning about danger, despite the fact that the spacesuit is the only correct clothing in which one can go out into outer space to maintain our safety. Anxiety makes us focused at the body level and attentive at the mental level. It also creates an internal feeling of “insecurity” for us, so that we understand and remember why we now need to be collected and attentive - so that in case of danger in a new territory, we can react in time and maintain our safety. What next ?By understanding the purpose of rational anxiety and taking into account the dynamics of the development of this state, we can now learn to use this emotion as a tool to get out of the comfort zone. How to get out of the comfort zone? Answer: step by step ↓Step No. 1: PreparationIn the case when we We are preparing to leave our comfort zone and try ourselves in something new, we need, first of all, to explore this unknown context in absentia for adequacy and dangers. We ask ourselves the first question: - Is the context in which I am going to find myself safe and adequate for the majority of people whose opinion I respect? If our answer is NO, then we should abandon our idea. If most people successfully cope with this context, then we should not have problems with this either. Then we ask ourselves the second question: - What is the worst thing that could happen to me in this new context? Our task is to make a list of potential problems that we are afraid to encounter there. Thus, we turn our vague anxiety into specific fears, of which we have a finite number. How do we work with this list? Opposite each fear from the list, we put a score from 0 to 100, reflecting how much this particular moment frightens us. We sort ours fears from the least frightening to the most frightening. We can begin to work with each fear in turn, as if it were rational (we answer the following questions: where will the danger come from?, what will it consist of?, how can we protect ourselves?). In this way In this way, we prepare in absentia for possible difficulties that we feel we may encounter there. This in turn reduces our anxiety. But.