Anxious or Excited? Do you - would you know the difference?
Physiologically and chemically, these two emotions are very similar so how can we tell the difference?
After all, these emotions share so many similarities.
Anxiety (nerves or worry) and excitement can all result in that feeling in your stomach or head – maybe both?
That’s because they are arousal emotions, cortisol surges through our body and then the body becomes action ready and prepares itself – for what?
When we’re anxious, we may feel:
tense
restless
nervous
hypervigilant
We may also start
sweating
breathing rapidly
have trouble concentrating
have an increased heart rate
This is similar to how we react when we are excited. Both leave us feeling in a hyperarousal state.
That’s when our interpretation comes in as we all know that public speaking is exciting for some and terrifying for others. In other words, if we recognise these feelings as positive, we’ll feel excited. If we see them as negative, we’ll feel anxious. And this has been proven by research too.
What’s important to remember is that excitement is accompanied by positive outcomes and expectations, which you are looking forward to. Anxiety is accompanied by the complete opposite, panic, dread, fear of failure or a negative outcome.
So how can you re-frame anxiety to excitement?
Our brains do an interesting thing called brain rehearsal.
When we think of a future event, we have an expectation –
What normally happens here?
If the outcome is positive, then we are more likely to feel excited about it.
However, if the outcome is negative or unknown then we are more likely to feel anxious, nervous or worry.
All these emotions require a level of imagination therefore using this innate ability in your own best interest can re-frame your expectation.
Imagine that the future event goes well and that you enjoy it. This takes some practice before it starts to become automatic and more natural.
It’s also very easy to switch from anxiety, nerves or worry to excitement as these emotions are both hyper-arousal states – an opposing state is calm – even though it is positive and shares similarities to the excitement, calm is low arousal.
That means it takes more mental effort to jump from anxiety to calm and less effort to move from anxiety to excitement.
The good news is that strategies can easily be implemented and skills learnt to be able to do this. This then has even greater benefits far beyond the event itself, switching to positive low arousal states can lead to better sleep, more cognitive function and a sense of re-balancing our body’s systems.
Strategies to shift your state from anxiety to a more positive state such as excitement or calm:
Use the breath. Having a longer out-breath than in-breath switches our sympathetic nervous system which is hyperarousal, to the parasympathetic nervous system which is low arousal.
Use the ‘What if’ question to your advantage. What if it goes well? What if you thoroughly enjoy it? What if it is the best thing you’ve ever done?
Use brain rehearsal to predict a great outcome, where everything has gone brilliantly, you’ve loved it, and it’s been an epic experience.
Remind yourself of all the times when anxious thoughts have predicted doom and gloom and the thoughts have been completely wrong.
Remind yourself of all the exciting things you have ever done - you’re still here now and all the better for having had fantastic exciting memories to recall.
Remember, whenever you notice the anxious thoughts rearing their ugly head - catch yourself and ask - are these anxious thoughts really true? Mostly they are not and are just a figment of our amazing imagination - which can also be a bit of a monkey!