Have you ever been in a nerve-wracking situation where you just have to tell yourself to calm down? Did it work? If not, then it’s probably because you’re already too stressed out that your mind and body simply could not make that big of an adjustment.
One solution, according to Harvard Business School Professor Allison Wood Brooks, is to reappraise your anxiety as excitement. The reason why this is more effective is because anxiety and excitement are difficult to distinguish as far as the physical changes that occur in your body. Therefore, getting excited when faced with an anxiety-inducing situation is easier for your mind and body than calming down. Plus, being excited allows you to channel your “fight or flight” state into something more productive.
Tell yourself, “I am excited.”
Brooks wrote in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: “Individuals can reappraise anxiety as excitement using minimal strategies such as self-talk (e.g., saying “I am excited” out loud) or simple messages (e.g., “get excited”), which lead them to feel more excited, adopt an opportunity mind-set (as opposed to a threat mind-set), and improve their subsequent performance.” This was after conducting a series of experiments that show the effectiveness of this technique when giving a public speech, solving math problems and singing karaoke.