The Anxiety Opportunity: How Worry Is the Doorway to Your Best Self

by Curtis Chang

All of these symptoms stem from some way our bodies are mobilizing to help us in that real and present moment. For example, let’s go back to my eight-year-old latchkey self. Why did I always feel a sinking sensation in the pit of my stomach? It was because my digestive system was shutting down in order to direct maximal blood flow to my large muscle groups. I envisioned a threat, so my body reacted by getting my muscles fully oxygenated to fight a hidden threat. My heart pounded in order to keep my blood flow going. Or why did I fire my pitches all over the place on the Little League mound? Because I imagined the future and anticipated the shame. I wanted to flee that feeling, so my body tensed my muscles to help me flee a threat. Those tense muscles were incapable of the fluid motions needed for pitching. Ironically, by imagining a future fear I wanted to flee, my body reacted in a way that hastened its arrival. Anxiety is counterproductive because it causes our body to engage in fight-or-flight mode for an imagined future threat, not a real and present danger.