I don’t like to focus on the negative, but I do like to speak the truth. The truth for many is that we feel anxious and overwhelmed. You can try to hide it, but your silent thoughts leak out in your nervous behaviors. Here’s my second strategy (continued from last week) for managing overwhelm and anxiety.
Strategy #2 | Thank you for sharing
When you’re feeling that you can’t get anything right, it’s likely due to negative self-talk, also known as the monkey mind. Most of us beat ourselves up on a daily basis. The monkey mind is a mismanaged narrative that has you believing you don’t have the smarts to keep up with technology, and that you’re going to get behind, and that you’re going to face some big failure.
What I learned through narrative coaching is that your story is the source of your suffering. The reality of new technology and artificial intelligence is here to stay. The monkey mind can take hold, and if you aren’t aware that it’s just a bundle of thoughts, you can become overly anxious, anti-social or negative.
Application
When the worries come to the surface, notice, and say to yourself, “Thanks for sharing.” Pay attention to your actual conversations with others, and you’ll hear other people’s concerns as well as your own. When you notice the quiet voice that’s always in your mind, you can shift the direction by acknowledging the narrative without giving in to the anxiety.
To your mental fitness,
Marlene Chism
