Call Out Your Anxiety

I recently stumbled upon Rainn Wilson’s Soul Boom podcast. I knew Rainn Wilson (actor who played Dwight Schrute on the show The Office) had written a book (affiliate) pondering various life questions – why are we here, why do we die, what’s a soul and why does it matter, mental health, spirituality, and on and on – but I hadn’t really explored anything about it further.

This Soul Boom podcast came up in my YouTube Shorts feed and it was with guest, Jeff Kober, who is also an actor, but more recently spends a lot of his time teaching mindfulness and spirituality meditation (affiliate) practices to others.

I’m sharing this because I think, at least, this particular episode is really worthwhile for people to check out. Especially, if you ever struggle with anxiety and self-destructive physical/mental habits, no matter how small you might think those destructive habits may be.

What I really like about this episode is this idea that over one’s lifetime the success of your journey is less about what you’ve accomplished externally in the world or the career success you’ve achieved – less about what you do – and more about what you’ve become. How far have you come as an individual – a self-realized individual who can be with, and learn from, their own insecurities and weaknesses to be wiser, more accepting and, in general, more loving to themselves and others.

I don’t take that to mean focus on your weaknesses to help strengthen them. There is always some level of that in play, but I take it to mean be balanced by embracing your strengths wholeheartedly while also acknowledging your weaknesses, fears and anxieties to accept them and understand how they are teachers and provide opportunities.

This can allow you to, as an individual, be more at peace with yourself and where you are presently to better embrace whatever is to come next and those who come along with it.

One thing I like to do to accept my anxiety and use it to my advantage, or at least minimize its paralyzing effect on me, is to verbally name your anxiety as it’s occurring. In other words, label the anxiety – “I’m anxious about X,” or, “When X happens I get nervous about Y.”  If you can identify your anxiety a bit, its power is diminished. It won’t totally go away, but it often takes the edge off to allow you to muster up your abilities to deal with it a little bit better. Writing down what you’re anxious about also often helps.

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