How do you not end up totally stressed and paranoid in times of constant uncertainty? What can help is to first understand that worry, stress, and anxiety are different things, and second, to establish different coping mechanisms for each one.
The difference between worry, stress and anxiety. This very short and crisp article helps immediately to empower us to get back in the driving seat when a wave of sorrow paralyzes us. Whereas “worry” is a mental state and only happens in our mind, stress is our body’s reaction, such as raised adrenaline and heartbeat as a result of any environmental stressors. However, stressors can ironically also originate inside of ourselves, e.g. in the form of worrisome thoughts. Finally, “anxiety” is a ground emotion and a combination of the two, mostly learned over a longer period of time and experiences. This distinction is helpful to cope wisely with the mental, physical and emotional part of our feelings.
Consciously limit your “worrying time”. Particularly appealing for me was the idea to limit the daily time-budget for worrying thoughts to 20 minutes. Indeed, when I reduced substantially my news consumption – particularly in the morning - I immediately experienced longer periods of higher energy and better performance and less paralyzing worrying-downs.
Imagine what would happen if we agree to consequently limit worrying time in team or business meetings…
