Caroline Cavanagh explains that anxiety is an adaptive response designed to protect you, not harm you. When you feel nervous before a performance or face a new challenge, that anxiety can actually fuel better results and growth. Reframing it as a useful signal helps you step outside your comfort zone.
Chapters
But the reality is, if we didn't have anxiety, you would die. Mm. Anxiety stops us from putting our hand on something hot because we fear getting burned, and getting burned will, you know, ultimately lead us to injury. So anxiety keeps you safe. You need it. But it is much like that rev counter. If it's too low for a long time, that's bad. If it's too high for a long time, that's bad. But you need to go through that whole spectrum. Yeah. And if it doesn't come up into that higher zone, you're not growing. Anxiety is what you feel. It's your body's chemistry when you step out the comfort zone. So even though you and I have been up on stage many, many times, the last time I got up on stage, I can avidly remember the, the MC coming over to me and going, you all right? It's like, yep, my palms are a bit sweaty, my heart's at about 130, I'm ready. Because I knew that adrenaline in my system was going to make me be absolutely on my top game the second I stepped up on that stage. And sure enough, within, you know, 5, 10 minutes, I'd calmed down because I was in the zone. Yeah, yeah. But going outside of your comfort zone is what you need to grow. And then in time, the comfort zone grows to encapsulate what you didn't do before. And we've all done this. Children are brilliant at this. First day at, I don't know, primary school, and they're clinging on to mummy, and but by Friday they run in smiling because they're now going into school as part of their comfort zone. But as adults, we stop doing this, and we're like, oh, that's scary, I'm not going to do that. No, do it, and know that the anxiety feeling that you've got is going to help you do it, not stop you do it. Yeah.
