More threads by Daniel E.

Daniel E.

daniel@psychlinks.ca
Administrator

"Developing connections to others may be our most important emotional survival skill."
 

Daniel E.

daniel@psychlinks.ca
Administrator
"The situation is hopeless, but not serious."

~ Paul Watzlawick, who "believed that people create their own suffering in the very act of trying to fix their emotional problems."
 

Daniel E.

daniel@psychlinks.ca
Administrator

  • We identify a novel strategy for reducing pre-performance anxiety: rituals.

  • Performing a ritual decreases anxiety and improves performance.

  • Rituals are more effective than other forms of distraction or trying to calm down.

  • The same behaviors improve performance more when they are described as a ritual.
Given their ubiquity in countless performance domains, it is possible and even likely that rituals may improve performance through several mechanisms. For example, rituals may prove helpful because they delay performance for a beneficial period of time, improve concentration, increase perceived control, or boost motivation. We focus on one mechanism that has previously been tightly linked to performance, assessing whether rituals improve performance by directly reducing anxiety.
 

Daniel E.

daniel@psychlinks.ca
Administrator

Shifting the Client’s Game Plan​

Anxiety is a mighty competitor, & it hides the true task of treatment. Anxiety shrewdly misdirects clients’ attention toward the content of their fears, such as the worry of causing harm to self or others through carelessness (OCD); worry about health concerns, money, relationships or work performance (GAD); the fear of criticism or rejection (social anxiety). This is a clever distraction, since the true nature of the challenge is tolerating the generic themes of doubt & distress.

Early in treatment, in addition to correcting misinformation, I have 2 goals. First, I want clients to recognize this distinction between the distracting content of their worries & the actual issues of doubt & distress that they must address. Second, I want them to take actions in the world that are the opposite of what Anxiety expects of them. Instead of seeking certainty & comfort, I encourage clients to voluntarily, purposely, choose to look for opportunities to get uncertain & anxious in their threatening arenas.
 

Daniel E.

daniel@psychlinks.ca
Administrator

Three things you need to know about anxiety disorders:
  • Anxiety Disorders are very common
  • Anxiety Disorders are difficult, but very solvable problems
  • Anxiety Disorders are counter-intuitive problems, and this is what makes them difficult
 

Daniel E.

daniel@psychlinks.ca
Administrator
Stressed? Instead of distracting yourself, try paying closer attention

When something sad, stressful or hurtful happens, so many of us look for a way to distract ourselves from the ensuing pain and discomfort. It may seem counterintuitive, but an effective way to manage our negative reactions to life's stressors actually involves slowing down and paying very close attention, says Jon Kabat-Zinn, the founder of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR).

"The kind of awareness we're talking about is so big and so open hearted and so spacious that it sees the good, the bad and the ugly of the human condition all at once, and it doesn't get caught and imprisoned by any of it."
 
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