The motto “Keep Calm and Carry On” emerged during World War II. At the time, England’s Ministry of Information was testing different messages to encourage people to face worst-case scenarios and came up with the idea of invoking a calm and sober state of mind.
However, the poster was never widely disseminated, in part because those in charge of disseminating it were concerned about the possibility that “People might be bothered by doubting their integrity and the firmness of their nerves.”
However, after its discovery decades later, “Keep Calm and Carry On” has become a slogan that we can find printed on mugs and T-shirts alike. And the reason for its popularity is a very simple one: it has resonated with many of us.
And we feel so identified with its message because anxiety has become practically omnipresent in our lives, so that probably one of the phrases we have heard the most is: “Calm down!”
It’s good advice – except when it doesn’t work, which is most of the time. When we anticipate the negative consequences of feeling anxious, we try to reduce that tension by calming down, but trying to reduce the feeling of anxiety often creates even more anxiety. It’s a snake that bites its tail. What to do?
Don’t panic, cognitive restructuring for anxiety comes to our aid. And although its name may seem complicated, it is actually a relatively easy technique to put into practice.
The transition from anxiety to excitement – and vice versa
We usually think of anxiety as a negative and aversive emotion. Nobody likes to feel anxious! And even worse, we worry when we feel anxious. As a result, anxiety affects our performance, in addition to causing our well-being to plummet.
Anxiety is characterized by negative appraisals, uncertainty, and a perceived lack of control. When you feel anxious, you tend to focus on the potentially negative outcomes of future events and believe they are more likely to occur. These beliefs lead you to lose confidence in yourself and make you more reluctant to take risks.
Instead, we tend to perceive arousal as a positive and pleasant emotion. We like to feel excited about something! We enjoy it and as a result it often catalyzes our performance and improves our well-being.
When you are immersed in a state of excitement you will tend to focus on possible positive outcomes and you will be more optimistic. This increases your confidence in your abilities and encourages you to take more risks, which will help you go further and achieve better results.
However, anxiety and excitement are quite similar. Both states involve the anticipation of certain events and are characterized by high arousal on an emotional and physiological level. In physical terms, for example, anxiety and arousal are very similar. In both there is an increase in heart rate and neuromuscular activation that prepares us to take action.
Interestingly, psychological studies have shown that we are not always very accurate in labeling our emotions, so we can misinterpret the source of the arousal, especially when it is ambiguous. That is, we have a hard time predicting our emotions and distinguishing whether we are anxious or excited at the prospect of meeting strangers or solving a particularly challenging problem.
Cognitive restructuring of anxiety
Psychologist Alison Wood, from Harvard Business School, recruited more than 400 people and subjected them to tasks that normally make us anxious. She asked some of them to prepare to give a speech in front of a camera and others to solve a complex mathematical problem against the clock.
Some could recognize: “I feel anxious ” or try to calm themselves with phrases like “Keep calm.” On the other hand, others had to change the way they interpreted the situation by saying to themselves: “I feel excited ” or encourage themselves with phrases like “Keep excited.”
While people prepared and performed the activity, the researchers measured their heart rate as an indicator of physiological activation and at the end, participants indicated what level of anxiety they experienced.
Thus, it was observed that people who acknowledged “being excited” felt more enthusiastic, spoke for longer to the camera, and were perceived as more persuasive, competent, confident, and persevering. In the same way, those who reinterpreted anxiety as excitement solved the mathematical problem better and faster.
What do these experiments teach us?
That it is possible to change the way we perceive and react to situations that generate certain tension in us. Trying to calm ourselves is often a counterproductive strategy that activates a state of hypervigilance and adds more anxiety.
On the other hand, when we have to deal with performance anxiety, it is much more useful to apply cognitive restructuring and interpret these sensations as excitement, a more positive emotion that helps us recharge with energy and in the long run can improve our performance.
And how to do it?
The key is to rethink the situation, moving from the threat mentality to the opportunity mentality. Unlike classic cognitive restructuring in which you must identify and question negative automatic thoughts such as “I won’t know what to say ” or “I will say something stupid ”, as well as dysfunctional beliefs that may be fueling anxiety, such as: “If I don’t do things perfectly, it will be a disaster ” or “I won’t be able to ”, in this case you should focus on the sensations.
It’s about understanding that those butterflies in the stomach, the heart beating faster or tension are also signs of expectation and excitement. If you do not classify them as “negative,” they will not unleash that series of thoughts that make you doubt your ability.
You have the ability to redirect that energy by telling yourself “I’m excited .” Use it to your advantage by considering the situation as an opportunity to test yourself and get out of your comfort zone .
References:
Wood, A. (2014) Get Excited: Reappraising Pre-Performance Anxiety as Excitement. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General; 143(3): 1144 –1158.
Schacter, S., & Singer, J. (1962) Cognitive, social, and physiological determinants of emotional state. Psychological Review; 69: 379 –399.
