#SYDWAC - Is Your Anxious Brain Getting In The Way?

Great. Start your day with a coach. I am your host, certified high performance coach Sean Butner. And today we're talking about is the anxious brain getting in the way. So if you've ever, right before bed, had your brain go start to go a million miles a minute on things you need to do with work, things you need to do for the family or the kids, things that you needed to or social interactions from grade school that you remembered where you really embarrassed yourself or wherever the anxiety takes you, if you've ever experienced that, then this video is going to be great for explaining a couple of different ways to address it. So, and it's important because, you know, we need to understand when anxiety is worth feeling anxious about or when situations are worth our worry. Because, you know, if you're on a mountain by yourself and you see a growling like mountain lion, that's a good time to start to worry. But when Frank, an accountant, says that, hey, that project proposal you did, the numbers don't add up and so maybe we can't do the project, you know, we can have that same fight or flight type of response in a social context when we feel embarrassed or we feel like we've been snubbed or one upped. But you know, it's really important to understand though that there are times when you are in danger, when you know, your body's activating to really do what it needs to do to fight or run away or play dead, I guess, you know, that whole thing. So when we have instances when there are things that are causing us to feel anxious and causing us to be distracted or you know, not focus on what's in front of us because we have this, you know, base level of worry in our heads. It's really, really important to think about like, okay, how can we redirect this? How can we release this? Or how can we reframe it? Right? That's the three point process. And I'll give you a couple of examples and habits to do in each of them. When, you know, it's like, okay, like maybe I feel a little embarrassed, is it worth being embarrassed? Is it worth the, the worry and all that stuff based on that. So first point to release, right? So if you have something that keeps coming up that makes you anxious, right? One of the techniques I really like to do is if it's basically it's a social interaction that keeps happening. So maybe you have social anxiety like I have had for a lot of my life. You know, imagine that situation happening in your head and imagine putting it on A picture, right? And so you see it on the picture. It could be moving or not. And then, you know, so you can picture that, that picture in your hand, you crumple it up and you throw it away. You know, there is. There's. The streets around my house are littered with these types of things where I'll be walking because I'm anxious. And I'll get to that in a little bit about something. I'll imagine it and I'll leave, leave it on the street. You know, the second thing, you know, David Allen, who was famous for doing a book called Get Things Done, which was really popular in, like, time management and productivity, had an exercise where if you're worried about all the things you got to get done at work or work at home, all the things that you need to do, taking a blank sheet of paper and writing down everything in your head and getting it on a piece of paper can help alleviate that. Hey, you forgot something. Hey, you know, you don't have it in the right order. So you know that you need to pick up the kids at 6 and it's, you know, 5:55, and you're still at work, and it takes you 20 minutes to get there prevents you from getting into that situation because people worry about that. So you can do that with all your tasks, and you can also do that with everything that. That you're worried or feeling. So if you're, you know, worried about global warming, how it's going to impact you in the next year, get it out, get it out, write it out. And there's this exercise, too. When you write it and you look at it, your brain will process it differently and you can actually say, oh, maybe I don't need to worry about that, or, yeah, I do, but, you know, this is what I can do about it right now. So it's a really powerful exercise for just releasing things that are making you anxious. The next thing is to redirect. So you go for a long walk outside, you do something strenuous. If you can get the heart pumping, then you just use the stress and anxiety and, you know, use that as fuel to lift or run or hike or walk or whatever is appropriate for your level of physicality. But it's, you know, for me, like, when I was starting out in my career, I had a lot of financial anxiety and a lot of, like, I felt like an imposter. And so training for a marathon was my solution, which is kind of nuts. And so it was pretty intense. But, you know, the miles and miles of running really helped me reduce my stress and anxiety so I could think about things critically and, and say, oh, here's how I could adjust. And that's how I was able to plan my way out of some of the student loan stuff that I had, you know, over like six years. I paid off over like $80,000 in student debt. So just pretty crazy to say out loud again, but, you know, that is what it is. Also, you know, you can redirect by creating things, right? So write a song, create a painting, you know, go to the wood shop or makerspace and create a table. Or, you know, doing something with your hands, doing something that occupies and can focus you and isn't maybe related to work, can really help you redirect some of that energy so that afterwards you're like, I'm accomplished. I did something and it kind of wore me out. So that's kind of the theme for that. The final bit is to reframe. So this one could be a little bit tricky, but you can take a worry, you write it out, right? Could be something like, I don't really, I hate my job right now and I can't believe I'm here and on and on and on. Or it could be like, somebody that I love is out in the world and I'm worried about him, right? I'm sure parents have this feeling a lot. And so how do you manage that worry, right? And the idea is to reframe. And so, like in the job example, you know, for me, like, I actually had this happen where I was stressing myself out, just reminding myself how I didn't really love my job at that particular time. And that was the reframe instead of I hate my job, which was what's going on in my head over and over and over again. It's like, I don't love my job right now. And it was time bound. And it was something that allowed me to say, okay, if I don't love my job now, how can I shift it into something I love? So that redirect was really awesome. Hey, Inger Shea, how's it going? See on the old Instagram there, so, you know, if you're worried about a loved one out in the world, you could say, like, I just, I really love this person and they've come home okay, every time so far. So maybe my worry isn't as justified. So super, super important. So when we have an anxious brain, we need to release, redirect or reframe using one of these habits or any of the habits that you have so that we can live with less stress and anxiety. So if you guys have any particular tactics or strategies, comment below the video right now on what you do to manage anxiety or manage stress to calm you down and either release, redirect or reframe or if there's anything I missed, I'd love to hear that too. And as always, if you'd like a little bit of one on one time with a certified high performance coach, you can go to SeanButter.com coaching to learn how you can, you know, work on stuff like this. You know, sometimes you just need to talk through this stuff with some folks. So. All right guys, that said, hope you liked start your day great. Start your day with a coach, go out there, live with more joy, more personal growth and more impact in your communities and I'll see you at the same time tomorrow. Take care guys. Have a good day.