Action alleviates anxiety

Reminder: It’s time for your Weekly 1:1™

Today’s agenda: Action alleviates anxiety

The question on the table: What kind of action actually moves the needle - and how do you know where to start when you are feeling anxious?

Before we start: I’ve learned that it almost doesn’t matter what the action is - moving toward something, anything, is what breaks the anxiety loop.

The world is as complicated as ever right now. It’s hard to know where to look, and honestly, sometimes harder to know when to look away. And yet life goes on. Work goes on. Leadership goes on.

For a lot of us, that pressure has a way of showing up as anxiety. And anxiety, if you let it, has a way of stopping you cold.

I know this because freeze is my default. When I can’t figure out what to do next - when I’m worried I’ll choose the wrong thing - I stop. I don’t want to do the wrong thing, so I don’t do any thing. And not doing any thing? That creates more of exactly what I was trying to escape. More anxiety. It’s a loop, and it’s vicious, and I hear some version of it from almost every leader I talk with right now.

The only thing I’ve found that actually breaks this loop is taking some kind of action. It doesn’t have to be the right action. It doesn’t have to be a big action. Sit down, inner perfectionist - this is not your moment. Small and forward is enough.

There’s actually a reason this works. When anxiety fires, it takes the planning part of your brain offline - the part that solves problems and thinks forward. The two can’t run simultaneously. When you choose action, even a small one, you hand the controls back to the part of your brain that can actually help you out.

So what kind of action matters? Honestly - almost any kind. Take a walk outside. Fold the laundry. Send the email you’ve been sitting on. Open the document. Pick one thing - anything - that gets you out of your head and into your body or your work, and move things forward.

When I’m stuck, I like to change my environment - get outside, put on some music, or sometimes write in my journal or phone a friend. Any kind of action that gets me and my mind in motion knocks me out of that anxiety loop. Does it work every time? Nope. But it works better than anything else I’ve tried. And believe me, I’ve tried.

That’s your 1:1 for this week.

Lisa English, ACC, CMM is a Leadership and Executive Coach and Strategic Consultant with deep expertise in Events, Travel and Hospitality. The Weekly 1:1™ publishes every Tuesday at 8am PT. Subscribe at lisaenglishsg.substack.com.