Adriana Barbara is a Mind specialized Coach who is focused on helping CEO's and high-level entrepreneurs to develop their leadership teams by assisting each member to transform their mindset from the root.
Imagine the following scenario: You haven’t had a great season at work, you’ve failed to meet some goals, and you’re starting to feel uneasy. You remember that your boss called you out a few days ago, and in the last meeting, your contributions weren’t great. At that moment, an image of yourself being poorly evaluated by your boss pops into your mind, triggering fear and nervousness. You keep thinking about it and start to worry. Now, you wonder what will happen to your job; maybe they’ll fire you due to your incompetence. If that happens, you’ll face serious financial difficulties and might be unable to meet your financial commitments. What would happen then? Your worry starts to grow.
Hours and days go by, and you continue imagining worst-case scenarios: your children are still in school, and they depend on your income to move forward. What will become of them? Maybe you’ll have to sell your car or even your house. That could be an option, but where would you live then? Or perhaps you could transfer them to a more affordable school, but what if that costs them the chance to get into a good university? What if you can’t find another job? The country’s economic situation is tough. What will happen to your health insurance? What if your whole family gets sick? How would you pay for medical expenses? What would happen to your family?
By now, your worry has escalated so much that it’s hard to control, pushing you into anxiety.
Have you ever found yourself trapped in a similar negative loop?
This is precisely what precedes and triggers anxiety: uncontrolled, destructive worry. What triggers this type of worry, and how can we manage it to respond constructively and avoid anxiety?
Let’s dive into it.
Unexpected events, adverse situations, and threats to our well-being or that of our loved ones occur in daily life. It is completely normal to feel worried when this happens, as our sense of security is compromised.
Worry itself is not negative when properly managed. On the contrary, it can be positive. The purpose of worrying is to reflect on the dangers we face and mentally explore possible ways to handle them. This is what we call constructive worry. This type of worry helps us anticipate and prepare for risks; it allows us to analyze, reflect, and create action plans to solve problems.
For example, in the case mentioned earlier about struggling at work, constructive worry pushes you to find a solution: You talk to your boss, ask for feedback and support, and focus on improving instead of assuming a catastrophic outcome. You may acknowledge that your performance hasn’t been great, but instead of letting that thought take over, you decide to wait until you talk to your boss, take a more hopeful perspective, and stick to your action plan to follow up and improve.
On the other hand, when worry is poorly managed, it becomes the core of anxiety. As we saw in the example, worry builds upon itself, increasing the severity of the situation and prolonging the problem. It becomes repetitive and chronic. The mind fixates on the danger itself, and the person becomes consumed by the fear of the catastrophe that could unfold if everything imagined comes true.
This type of worry is called destructive worry, where concerns expand to include a wide range of unlikely scenarios, perceiving dangers that others wouldn’t even notice.
When destructive worry persists, it can trigger anxiety. At this stage, worries seem to arise out of nowhere; they become uncontrollable; they constantly murmur in the back of your mind, and they prevent clear reasoning, trapping you in a rigid, inflexible perspective about the issue at hand.
The impact of anxiety
Once anxiety takes over, it can cause physiological effects such as insomnia, excessive sweating, increased heart rate, or muscle tension. Additionally, it keeps the body in a prolonged state of alert, weakening the immune system and reducing its ability to defend and regenerate itself. Anxiety also affects cognitive processes, impairing our ability to analyze situations, make decisions, and think clearly and objectively.
Now that we understand how anxiety emerges from destructive worry, let’s explore how to prevent and manage it more effectively.
Steps to manage worry and prevent anxiety
Here are some simple steps to help you shift from destructive worry to a more constructive mindset:
1. Develop self-awareness
Learn to recognize when worry is triggered by identifying unsettling thoughts as soon as they arise. This means catching the moment when a catastrophic image sparks the worry-anxiety cycle.
2. Practice immediate relaxation techniques
Use relaxation methods at the moment, such as:
Breathing technique: Inhale for 3 seconds, hold for 7 seconds, and exhale for 9 seconds until you feel calmer.
Mindfulness: Try guided meditation or body scanning to relax both your muscles and your mind.
3. Challenge the source of your worry
Actively question the thoughts that trigger your worry with questions like:
Is it likely that the event I fear will happen?
Is there truly no solution?
Does replaying these anxious thoughts over and over help me?
Are there any constructive steps I can take right now?
4. Plan and take immediate action step
Think of a simple step you can take today to contribute to a solution, and take action.
By practicing these steps repeatedly, you can develop the habit of managing worry effectively and transforming it into a useful tool for taking action and solving challenges.
What’s worrying you today? Identify it and follow the steps!
In my Neuroscience Coaching Process, I help my clients develop self-awareness and mental and emotional management skills to cultivate a life of greater well-being and proactivity.
If you want to train your mind toward a constructive state and improve your quality of life, I invite you to explore my Coaching Program. Discover how science can help you reach your goals!
Don’t miss my next article, where we’ll continue exploring the mind and how to use it effectively to achieve success.
Adriana Bárbara Rodríguez, Mind Coach
Adriana Barbara is a Mind specialized Coach that is focused on helping CEO's and high-level entrepreneurs to develop their leadership teams by assisting each member to transform their mindset from the root, achieve their full potential and improve their highest productivity in order to accomplish the organization’s goals in an effective and sustainable way, with her innovative Neuroscience method in leadership.
