Powerful Poise by Daniel Glick

Author:Daniel Glick
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: presence cuddy, presence by cuddy, presence by amy cuddy, presence amy cuddy, how to have a good day caroline webb, how to have a good day by caroline webb, presence book
Publisher: Daniel Glick
Published: 2018-01-05T16:00:00+00:00

Bedrock 3: It’s Not Anxiety, It’s Excitement

In Presence, Amy Cuddy describes the anxiety many of us feel before any high-pressure situation, whether it be leading a meeting, interviewing for a job, delivering a speech, undertaking a big project, or having a high stakes conversation. This anxiety can be paralyzing and the advice we often get from others, to just calm down, is entirely unhelpful.

And scientifically inaccurate, it turns out. According to Cuddy, anxiety is described by psychologists as a state of high arousal emotions and psychological vigilance. In other words, when we are feeling anxious, we are on high alert. Everything around us, every sound, every nuance, is perceived as a threat. Our hearts race, our palms sweat, our cortisol strikes. This is not our fault—it’s the response of our nervous system. We can’t shut it off, so any advice to simply “calm down” is not only worthless, it’s impossible to follow, and it causes us to feel even more anxious.

The key, then, to overcoming anxiety is not to force it out with brute force. That won’t work. Instead, let’s take a look at another high arousal emotion, one that we associate with positive experiences in our lives—excitement. Cuddy says that because we can’t necessarily get rid of the symptoms of arousal we associate with anxiety, the next best thing is to reframe those symptoms as positive instead of negative, as excitement instead of anxiety.

So the next time you start to feel anxious right before you do something important or nerve-wracking, don’t bother trying to calm yourself down. Instead, tell yourself, “I’m glad that I’m so excited about this [insert event here]. My body is giving me all the energy I need to crush it!” Use those high-arousal feelings to give you the excitement and enthusiasm you need to dominate the situation. Envision confidence and dynamism flowing through your body. The more you do this, the easier it will get.

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