Freedom from Anxious Thoughts and Feelings by Scott Symington

Author:Scott Symington
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: New Harbinger Publications
Published: 2019-01-09T20:59:21+00:00

Enlivening Activities

Now we turn to a third type, enlivening activities. As the name suggests, this type of HDA goes well beyond providing safe harbor from the side screen. Enlivening activities inject aliveness into your bloodstream, generating excitement or joy or a more vibrant connection with life. This can be a powerful way to use the HDA anchor, where the anxious feeling or unhealthy urge—the challenging side screen activity—leads you to an activity that helps you feel more alive. While the experience of aliveness can’t be reduced to a simple formula, there are ways to cultivate it and set the stage for its arrival. People often experience aliveness when they appropriately challenge themselves, experience a sense of adventure, or tap into their creativity. In this next section, beginning with the theme of challenge, we’ll explore the reliable sources of positive stimulation and aliveness that make up the enlivening distraction type.

Challenge

For starters, challenging yourself is a highly effective way of diverting your attention away from the side screen. When you face a healthy challenge, whether it be taking that intimidating workout class or trying to do a minor household repair, you can’t afford to go away in your mind and hang out with the worries or unsettling feelings showing up on the side screen. The current challenge naturally demands your complete focus. Your brain, aware of this requirement, comes to your aid by unleashing greater attentional powers, so your mind is unusually focused on fixing the household appliance or following the instructor’s movements in that newly offered aerobics class. Whatever the challenge, you will notice an increased capacity to stay focused on what you’re doing in that moment, which means you’re not watching the side screen.

And, in keeping with this category, a challenging activity can bring more aliveness into your life. It’s an antidote to the stale, predictable life pattern that many of us fall into. Try to find ways to stretch yourself in small ways each week. Maybe you learn a new chord on the piano or research an important public policy issue that has left you confused. Then once a month or quarter, take a stab at a bigger challenge. Go for the more challenging bike ride or hike. Download a foreign language app or sign up for Toastmasters. As you’re generating ideas for the enlivening category, try to include some activities that tap into this challenge theme.

Adventure

The opposite of the daily grind is adventure, another common channel for aliveness. Similar to a challenge, an adventurous activity breaks up the monotony and expands your life sphere. It stimulates your senses with something new and exciting. Your brain, which loves to process new stimuli, will naturally be more present-moment-focused as it soaks in the novel sights, sounds, and sensations. This automatic response to adventure is one reason why some people are surprised by a decrease in worry and anxiety when visiting a new area or country. It would be easy to expect the opposite—that leaving the familiar and venturing into the unknown would make people more anxious.

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