Dispute FEAR With Rationale and Logical Thinking

Yes, we are in a crisis and that triggers, elevates and prolongs fear, anxiety and forms of depression. These conditions occur and manifest themselves through thought management and self-talk. There is a ton of social media posts and reposts on the crisis and how to mentally cope with it.

Having the benefit of leveraging deep, proven forms of research and studies on leadership, organizational behavior and resiliency, I lean towards providing individuals and groups more details than less. For example, just telling someone to be “positive” without teaching and training on specific, proven methods, is like telling someone to swim a mile after only a single swim lesson or two.

Here’s a systematic, research based sequence of behavioral actions everyone can take to better contain the stress and anxiety we ALL are feeling.

Mindset-have beliefs and attitudes that gain commitment to managing yourself and your thinking processes better. This is less a matter of ability than it is willingness.

Beliefs-With this, be willing to challenge “old” beliefs you and others have with new, current information, facts, data and logic. Beliefs are a choice. Make the choice.

Thought management and self talk-1000’s of thoughts go through our mind on any given day. We have a tendency to go negative. Be more mindful of your thoughts. Take an online mindfulness or meditation or yoga course to get closer to your thoughts.

Staying positive, vs. negative-We all go negative. Often. It’s more a matter of recognizing the emotions, understanding why, learning from it and getting back to positive. There are dozens of emotional labels (joy, grateful, fear, love, anxiety, etc.) that describe positive or negative emotions. The more you use a granular, specific list of emotions vs just feeling “emotional”, you will be able to recognize and filter them better.

Finally, journal all the good things going on in your life-daily. Reflect on all the fulfilling relationship interactions-daily. This will saturate your brain with “good” thoughts, create more switch to positive habits, rather than “bad” ones and will create a form of a buffer for the continued waves of stress and anxiety.

All this helps to build up our resiliency.