By Thomas Swarbrick, Content Team Academic
The problem
Experiences of anxiety have become an epidemic amongst adults and adolescents. Whether it takes the form periodic stress or severe phobic symptoms, prevalence rates have concerningly reached an all-time high. But what is it about our generation that leaves us so vulnerable?
With ever-expanding sources of media, the pool of strategies and guidance for anxiety management can appear endless. Every influencer has their own ideal ‘self-care’ roadmap, each contradictory to the last. It takes no qualification to announce to the world perfect unique de-stress routine. Yet unfortunately, many of these promoted lifestyles are often unattainable or impossible to be practiced in the long-term, only exacerbating the viewers’ stress. Each additional slice of ‘self-care’ advice acts as another task imposed on our already overwhelmed to-do-list, and often these widely endorsed strategies are far from pleasurable. It is ‘common knowledge’ that cold showers, vegetables and early-morning runs are good for us – but what about for the 14-year-old who chronically overthinks? Is training like an athlete going to help them make friends at school? Hence, after five minutes of scouring social media, we are left dizzy, directionless and blindly confused.
It’s easy to lay the blame on social media – easy enough that everybody is seemingly aware that time should be invested someplace else. But the vast majority, upon being questioned, have no concrete knowledge of what processes embedded in the media incur anxiety. And, like most problems, anxiety cannot be harnessed until its triggers are known.
Rather obviously, there no universally known determinants for anxiety, we can infer from particular events and subsequent stress/worry responses what circumstances can make anxiety more likely to occur, yet each individual always has their own precursors for anxiety. Nevertheless, social media seems to correlate positively and consistently with anxiety symptoms, indicating that there may be some shared factor.
Influencers are quick to denounce lazily spent days in place of productivity. Modern culture now teaches us that the resolution to our problems (including anxiety) is found in busy schedules, optimised routines and financial success. But doesn’t this seem… absurd? How are we to console racing thoughts if we manage our time in overdrive? When do we schedule an hour of boredom to simply sit and relax? Sure, the net outcome of productivity is desirable, but surely we can delay such achievements for a more peaceful state of mind?
Moving Forward
It may seem counterintuitive, but perhaps the resolution isn’t to indulge in the lifestyle that influencers prescribe, but to decrease the quantity of self-help advice we expose ourselves to. Kierkegaard once famously wrote ‘Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom’ which, in the context of anxiety, can be interpreted as “unless we are free to be who we are, anxiety will undoubtedly follow”. And what’s more restraining on our freedom than having our lives dictated by others?
Perhaps the answer is commitment. The selection of a few progressive steps forward. A small, gradual implementation of practices tailored to improve our physical and mental wellbeing. Replacing the comparison to lifestyles beyond our reach with changes accustomed to our own preferences and abilities – with the key being that we stick to these adaptations.
So, what exactly can we do? Which guidance is worthy of our attention? To what strategies are our efforts best spent? Although I am no expert (yet) in the field of psychology, anecdotally I can offer a little wisdom to prompt a positive route. I have had my fair dosage experimenting with strategies to help manage anxiety, yet above all, the subtle art of meditation greatly triumphed any other form of coping.
Boredom, relaxation and stillness are all virtues that are scarcely seen in modern Western culture but are at the heart of many Eastern traditions. Practice of meditation is assumed within the Buddhist religion; entire lifestyles are centred around the cultivation of a calmed mind. Meditation is an ancient wisdom; it dates back as early as 1500BC and has survived due to its numerous benefits. Admittedly, particularly amongst young adults, upon hearing “meditation” many eye rolls tend to follow. The conventional mental image associated is a little farfetched and misconstrued. Meditation can be practiced in much simpler forms, as Rob Walker puts it “The art of noticing”. One main idea behind meditation is that you are separate from your thoughts. Life continues – no amount of thinking is enough to change the world beyond your head – and how easily anxious we can become. We are so frequently ‘absent’, falling prey to worrisome thought, entirely forgetting to merely exist in each moment.
Simply paying attention to the breath each morning is enough to disempower such racing thoughts. Anxious thoughts are the pages fluttering whilst flipping through a book, and meditation is the of reading each page, steadily and consciously. The ability to recognise the pervasiveness of one’s thoughts is enough to ease the mind. I am not suggesting we purify our brains from any form of thinking, thoughts are a marvellous tool but instead try to yield some control over the thoughts we prioritise and act upon. Recent forms of Cognitive Behavioural Psychology (CBT) suggest packaging all our worry and allocating specific times to give weight to such thought. More traditionally, we are encouraged to examine our incessant thought through a sceptical lens, evaluating the rationality of them. Both techniques are a form of meditation.
The Bottom Line
Modern culture has a good heart. Ultimately aiming to help us manage our anxiety and better ourselves but unfortunately has achieved the converse by overwhelming us. Many techniques are affective for reducing anxiety, and it is the recognition that we only need a select few to nudge us in the right direction. There is only so much knowledge we can acquire about managing-anxiety, and it is easy to assume that the more advice we consume, the better we will be. Stepping back is worth a try, focusing on a handful of personalised strategies, realistic ones we can be consistent with. Anxiety thrives in our own minds, and nobody is better aware of our thoughts than ourselves.
References
Kierkegaard, S., Thomte, R., & Anderson, A. (1980). The concept of anxiety : a simple psychologically orienting deliberation on the dogmatic issue of hereditary sin. Princeton University Press.
Selva, J. (2017, March 13). History of mindfulness: From east to west and religion to science. Positive Psychology. https://positivepsychology.com/history-of-mindfulness/
Walker, R., Mendelsund, P., & Munday, O. (2019). The art of noticing : rediscover what really matters to you. Ebury Press.
