The Positive Role of Anxiety or The Useful Functions of Anxiety

15 Dec The Positive Role of Anxiety or The Useful Functions of Anxiety

Today we have a guest post from Nessie! Thanks for sharing this one Nessie! I hope you enjoy it dear reader.

The word “anxiety” has become part of our everyday experience. A dictionary definition of “anxiety” highlights the discomfort of being anxious… mentally troubled… excessive uneasiness. The problem with the word “anxiety” is that it can be used to express overwhelming psychological distress or it can mean a lower level of chronic tension and uneasiness. When anxiety is intense and constant and when it interferes with the activities of everyday life it will be necessary to seek treatment. If anxiety is accompanied by depression or thoughts of self-harm, medical care should be sought urgently.

However, there may be other times when anxiety is less intense and can serve a useful function. There are two ways that anxiety may serve a purpose. Firstly, anxiety may be a signal that something in our life is not working. We may feel uneasiness about our work or our living arrangements or relationships. Anxiety may be the first signal that something needs to be addressed in our life circumstances. Often it is difficult to make changes as we become accustomed to the current situation, even though that situation is not ideal. Most of us are familiar with not wanting to get out of our “comfort zone”. The comfort zone may not be all that comfortable, but it is familiar. Anxiety may be an ongoing message that change is required.

A second way that anxiety may serve a purpose is the role it seems to play in the creative process. In his book on Creativity, Amit Goswami, a quantum physicist, states that very creative people routinely experience anxiety as part of the creative process. Goswami explains that in order to create something new, the creative person lets go of their “conceptual world” resulting in a partial change in their personality and a loss of self-identify which in turn leads to anxiety and difficulties.

Most of us can relate to a certain level of tension when we are in the throes of a creative endeavor. Even learning a new skill involves a certain level of tension and unease as we struggle to become proficient. When the skill is difficult and far exceeds our capabilities there is a level of anxiety that is so uncomfortable we may give up the venture entirely.

Robert Fritz has also explored the creative process and encourages people to let go of preconceived concepts and ideas in order to create something new. Fritz recommends embracing that creative tension and living our life like an artist: he describes a process of creating a vision of what we want to achieve and taking action constantly to achieve what we have envisioned. Fritz suggests that self-confidence, self-esteem, and other subjective states have little bearing on whether we will achieve our outcomes or not: the important thing is to progress steadily towards the desired outcome by constantly taking relevant action.

In Fritz’s model, a powerful, creative tension is set up whenever we have a compelling goal to reach for and we make our plans based on our current reality. The tension that is produced by the gap between the desired goal and our current reality is an energy that propels us towards the desired vision.

The challenge in living life creatively is to manage the attendant anxiety so that it is contained within acceptable limits.

There is a distinct difference between creative tension that could be termed ”anxiety” and a state of constant, intense stress due to excessive anxiety. Anxiety can be useful to us if we are able to harness it to live life creatively, constantly propelling us towards positive goals, but when we are disabled by anxiety so that everyday life becomes difficult and stressful it is a signal to seek medical care.