Are you feeling anxious about your work situation?
Did you get laid off, furlough, or fired? Are you still working but have your hours been cut or your not sure how long you are going to have a job?
There is a lot of uncertainty in the world and our work or income is a place where our anxiety can be the highest because it represents our safety.
Let us share some ideas, and resources that could help provide some relief to your anxiety. In terms of understanding how your brain works and how to best help yourself in your own unique situation.
Specifically, I want to help get your emotions in check or under control will go a long way in helping you to think clearly and find the resources you need. I also want to help, by getting you out of your head and back to a place of taking action.
We have created this new series called ANXIOUS, to address the anxieties that have been created by the coronavirus.
Let me share a few ideas about work anxiety by sharing a story of a client. I was talking with a business owner, named Mitch. Mitch’s world was turned upside down by the coronavirus and the sudden shutdown of the economy. His business was event planning, and with social distancing put into place that meant all his current and future endeavors were placed on hold.
He was proactive and raced to get signed up on the Payroll Protection Plan (PPP) authorized and funded by Congress to assist businesses like his. But that proved to be a point of frustration as each site or bank he reached out to quickly became overloaded and were unable to assist him.
Soon, he became despondent and trapped in bed. His anxiety grew to such a pitch that he didn’t want to do anything. He was a mover and shaker and now he was paralyzed with anxiety. That’s when he gave me a call for help.
What was happening was his two main brain structures were looping in fight or flight, which really meant he was frozen. There was nowhere to run, and nothing to fight and therefore his brain just froze in fear.
The brain knows how to deal with crises. All creatures from the beginning of time have had to deal with life-threatening situations. But what happens when there is nothing for you to do? If you are human, you will tend to become trapped in your thoughts.
Thinking too much creates a Paralysis of Analysis. Mitch’s thinking was unable to get himself into a place of action.
In a crisis nothing is clear, nothing is certain and therefore our focus instead of shifting to action continually loops back to thought. This creates the Paralysis of Analysis.
Many of the people I work with have noticed a drop in productivity. Even those with jobs have a certain level of stability in this crisis, notice their brains are like in a fog and focus is harder, and productivity has dropped.
When our world becomes disrupted our normal patterns are disturbed which includes how we think. Let me explain it by looking at how the brain works.
We all have two major structures to our brain, the outer layers which are what most think about when we see a brain. The two hemispheres are your higher thinking brain or your thinking mind. This part of your brain both does your logical thinking as well as your creative thinking. Thinking brains are unique to humans and other highly evolved creates like primates.
Then there are the deeper structures of your brain, these more primitive parts we share in common with most mammals. These are your limbic system and your brain stem. These parts of your brain are your reactive minds. They don’t think but react to stimuli.
Thinking brains think, and reactive brains act. Life, works best when your thinking brain and reactive brain works together coming up with an idea and then moving into action.
But with Mitch, what was happening was that the action part was not really clear and therefore he was stuck in the thinking part.
Here is how the system works in a simple example.
What if I wanted to buy a car? I would have to go through a series of thoughts and then actions, but if I go backward and continually question my thoughts, not letting them move to action I would be stuck.
Think about buying a car…
Should I buy a car? It would be my first thought. Once I made that choice, I would have to move to my next action/thought, What kind of car? And then I would do some research and explore what kind of car. After making that choice I would go forward to the next step of going to a car dealer.
At any point, if I go back, to the thought before, like “Should I buy a car?” All actions forward would STOP.
Once each question is made, then the choice needs to be ENDED. Then you can move or take action on the next thought. If it is not you will remain in thought without action.
In a crisis or novel situation actions are unclear, because there is too much information that is unclear or unknown. Keeping you in a thinking state.
To break the spell created by the paralysis of analysis my client will need to move into action without clear direction.
It is easier to steer a moving car than a parked car. You need to move, and it doesn’t matter where in order to get out of your head. Once you’re moving again then it is easier to change direction as you need.
To help Mitch move again we tapped into a prior state of action. Thinking back to when he was first starting building businesses. I asked him if he was paralyzed by his overthinking.
“Hell no. My first 10 business ideas didn’t work, but that was alright because each situation moved me closer to my goal.”
In the session, we did a time machine and had him remember when he was moving. “What did that look like, feel like, what did you act like?” He went back in time and relive those days of taking action with little to no certainty.
Then we future paced those feelings into tomorrow. As he moved into doing mode he could feel his energy begin to flow and his level of excitement rise. By the time the session was over, he was energized and ready to take action.
I just heard back and he is back in high gear. He is reshaping his business to produce online meetings for large businesses. He pulls all the materials and for mates the online event. Will this new idea work? I don’t know. But it doesn’t matter, he is moving again, and as long as he is going he will find his direction.
If you need help dealing with anxiety around work, please join our Work Anxiety Group on Fridays at noon, Mountain time. Check the event section of the Gathering of Good People facebook page for more details.