Peace & Prosperity Podcast
In the Peace & Prosperity Podcast, Jason Phillips, licensed therapist and life coach, shares personal experiences that force you to think deeply about your values, beliefs, and behaviors to ensure you achieve peace, happiness, and success in your life.
Peace & Prosperity Podcast
Signs You Are Experiencing Anxiety #68
The Peace & Prosperity Podcast is a bi-weekly conversation with Jason Phillips, LCSW, licensed therapist and confidence expert in Raleigh, NC, discussing all things related to self-love and self-confidence, and how we can improve ourselves personally and professionally.
Have you ever felt that anxiety is quietly sabotaging your confidence and holding you back from reaching your full potential? Join me, Jason Phillips, as we uncover the profound yet often overlooked relationship between anxiety and confidence. By tuning in, you'll learn to identify the subtle signs of anxiety that impact your daily life and decision-making process. We'll shed light on how feelings of jitteriness, tension, or emotional distance can be so hidden from those around us that we may not even recognize them ourselves. Through candid discussions, we'll explore the destructive impact of negative self-talk and pessimistic thinking, which often lead to inaction and missed opportunities.
We'll also tackle how unchecked anxiety can significantly affect your relationships and personal growth. I emphasize the importance of confronting and managing your fears to prevent future regrets. By addressing anxiety head-on, you can build healthier coping mechanisms and improve your overall well-being. Throughout the episode, you'll discover insights into bettering your relationship with yourself and others, empowering you to live a more confident, fulfilled life. Don't forget to explore other episodes where experts share their strategies for managing anxiety in various contexts, from friendships to professional environments. Let's journey together towards peace, prosperity, and unshakable confidence.
Plus, remember to join our podcast community—like, share, subscribe, and let us know what topics you want us to cover next. Engage with us, send a DM, or leave a review. Let's continue this journey towards peace and prosperity together.
To stay connected with Jason and learn about coaching, connect with Jason on social media:
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jphillipsmsw/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/jphillipsmsw
Visit Jason's website for a consultation:
Website -https://www.jasonlphillips.com
To book Jason to speak to your team or organization:
https://peaceprosperitycoaching.hbportal.co/public/660d8068c9d2d600253b215b/1-Inquiry
Welcome to another episode of the Peace and Prosperity podcast. I'm your host, jason Phillips, licensed therapist, confidence expert, and today we're going to dive into one of my favorite topics, which I think is one of y'all's too, but we're going to talk about anxiety and how our anxiety has an impact on our confidence and how we show up. So the reason behind this episode is because I'm really starting to hear and see in my practice and even just day to day life, we're experiencing anxiety at extremely high levels now. I mean from the smallest things to well, maybe not small to some, but like what do I wear? To the bigger things as far as what do I do with my life? Like what career choice do I make or do I reconcile this relationship, and I'm going to talk about some signs that you can be aware of that you are experiencing anxiety and, of course, we're going to talk about what do you do with it. So the first thing I want to just say when it comes to anxiety, you probably feel yourself being really, really on edge and tensed up almost to the fact is where you feel very jittery, or sometimes you can feel like you're about to explode inside, but on the outside nobody knows what's happening. You've been accustomed to operating at this level for so long that most of your friends, your family, your peers they don't get it. And well, let me say that, not that they don't get it, but they don't notice it. And well, let me say that, not that they don't get it, but they don't notice it because you're just so good at hiding it. So we have to start being more forthcoming about our true feelings. It's not helping you and it's not helping them help you when you conceal or choose not to reveal what you're going through.
Speaker 1:And I get it. I'm that person who does not like asking for help. I don't like a lot of attention on me or definitely like not a pity party. So I understand where you're coming from If you're like well, look, I just want to figure this out on my own. But then you have to ask yourself those magic words or magic question how is this working out for you? Like that, right, there has been a game changer, because when you think about what you're doing to rectify the issue on your own, is it working? And more often than not, it's not working, and you've reached your wits end as far as what to do. You've run out of answers for yourself, you've run out of resources, so you have to say, all right, let me let somebody in and let somebody know what's going on. Now.
Speaker 1:How else can you recognize anxiety the way that you talk, meaning you probably have a lot of negative self-talk, you're being more pessimistic about things. So let me give you an example. You have an opportunity coming up and at first you're excited about it. You're like you know what this is for me. You know I've been manifesting it. Or you know I've been praying on it, I've been working towards it. But then one thing goes wrong in the process and now you're like wait, maybe this is not meant to be, maybe this is a sign. Oh, this could be a bad decision. It may not work out for me. Like all of these negative thoughts start to race in your head and all of a sudden, this goes from being like the best thing that could have happened to you to the worst thing that you don't want to happen, and it happens so quick. So be mindful of this yourself. Talk and what you're attracting or projecting to come true Another way to recognize your anxiety you may find your energy just being zapped and this looks like you know low mood, you don't want to do anything.
Speaker 1:You stand at home or or when you are out. It's like you're out but you're physically or mentally you're not there. So you're physically, you know, hanging out with friends or your partner, but like emotionally and mentally in your head you're in hanging out with friends or your partner, but like emotionally and mentally in your head, you're in a whole different space. And again, this is something that you can become accustomed to doing. So you'll say, yes, you'll show up, but on the inside you're thinking what do I say next? Or I hope everybody's not looking at me, or I hope I'm not making a fool out of myself. All of these things come up for you so you can't even enjoy the moment. So these are some signs that your anxiety is really starting to get the best of you. It's fueling self-doubt and more than likely you're going to end up self-sabotaging because you're projecting or you're expecting bad things to happen. So because of that you, you don't act. So those type of thoughts lead to inaction and over time, if that becomes the pattern now, you're really going to feel bad, because you'll look back and say, well, I could have done a whole bunch of things, but you chose not to because of the fear or the worry or the the feelings of being overwhelmed, or what if this goes wrong? What if this doesn't work out? This doesn't work out, I'm telling you. If that's the case, you're going to find yourself being way more frustrated, not because of what did happen, but because of what did not happen on your end, because you feared what was going to happen. I hope you all follow me on that one.
Speaker 1:I remember when I first started to like practice in therapy, there was a worksheet that we would go over in one of the groups and it was like a cartoon and it says something to the effect of I had a lot of things. What did he say? I worried about a lot of things, but most of them never happened. Something like that, meaning a lot of the things that we worry about does not actually come true. But we spend a lot of time and energy trying to predict what's going to happen or how do we navigate it if it does come true. But then, when it doesn't, we're just stuck like hey, I really spent all of that time trying to mitigate this potential problem or problem, solve a problem that didn't come up. And now that becomes frustrating because you look at all of the time that you put into something that didn't even come true.
Speaker 1:I'm telling you, this anxiety thing can really, really be a beast, and it can lead us to feeling stuck and actually being stuck. So what do you do about it? Well, one, you got to change up the people around you. Now I know you like wait, I don't. I'm not around anybody, right? I'm already feeling anxious. So I pretty much stay to myself. So what does that mean? Now you have to look within and start to do the work on yourself. I always say, when you start to do that self-work, that means you have to humble yourself and acknowledge that, hey, I'm a part of this problem. It's not just everybody else, because that's what I want to say, because it seems good and it feels good to say, hey, this is because of them or that's because of this, but in actuality, we have some of the responsibility in that right. I think we talked about that on previous episodes, how we have to take accountability and the healing is our responsibility. So that's the first thing.
Speaker 1:Then, next, I want you to map out what does your life look like without anxiety. You see where I'm going there. Or you could say this what does your life look like if you were managing anxiety? Because sometimes we feel like, wait, look, this anxiety is just going to be here and I't know how to how to get rid of it. But how can you still show up with it? Or, despite of, like I think sometimes we think that because we experience anxiety, that means we can experience joy or pleasure, and that could not be further from the truth. Like there's a lot of stuff that I myself do, even if I'm anxious, even if I'm worried, nervous, and you know what? I still have a great time.
Speaker 1:I've talked about just different things, whether it be speaking, whether it be, you know, physical activities like swimming, the new experiences you know going back to school at a later age, like all of these things come with some worry in between it. But that doesn't mean that I don't do it like OK, let's look at it like this If you continue not to do the things because of the anxiety, then what does your life look like in five years, 10 years, 20 years? Would you really want to look back on your life and say, dang, I wish I could have done this, but I was so nervous. That is poor outcome, like the outcome is going to be there, but you have some say so in what the outcome looks like. You don't want to let your anxiety dictate that. I'm telling you.
Speaker 1:I like anxiety can really be debilitating and it can take over. You can sell yourself short. You can essentially live your life at a lower level or, as they say now, lower vibration, because you're afraid of what could happen, the whole shoulda, coulda, woulda thing. It gets really, really deep. But I'm here to say that if you break it down, one identify where the anxiety is coming from, how it's showing up, and then ask yourself what does life look like with you managing it? Now you can start to see. You know what. I can still do this even if I am worried about people judging me. Or I can still do this even if I am scared that I may fail, because you could fail. But does that make you a failure? No, it means that you tried, even with the anxiety.
Speaker 1:I remember when I was in grad school it was one class I had. I didn't really speak up a whole lot in that class and I remember the professor said man, we wish we could have heard more from you during that class. And that statement stuck to me because it was like you know what, even if I'm not sure if I have the right answer, if I know what I'm talking about or if people may judge my response or my comment feedback, whatever, I still put it out there. You never know who you're going to help or just helping yourself by speaking up and speaking out. Don't let the concern about how you look or how you are perceived to other people stop you from being who you are. That is letting the anxiety win. Being who you are, that is letting the anxiety win.
Speaker 1:Yeah, anxiety is going to be there. It's a part of it's a natural emotion, but it's only when it becomes really severe and intense and the frequency is really up there. That's when anxiety becomes a problem. Don't live your life at a lower level because you're afraid of what is going to happen, or you're afraid of how you going to happen, or you're afraid of how you're going to look, how you're going to sound. That will cause you to have what we don't want, and that's regrets, man, we talking about it.
Speaker 1:I really wanted to go there because, again, from the younger folks that I work with to the folks who are a little bit older. We all are saying some of the same things, which is fear, worry, concern, and is showing up and impacting our relationships, not just with ourself, but with other people as well. All right, y'all, so that's another episode of the Peace and Prosperity podcast. All right, y'all. So that's another episode of the Peace and Prosperity podcast. I would encourage you, if this episode hits home for you, check out some of the other episodes around anxiety. I've had some other experts come on to talk about how they manage anxiety, whether that be in friendships, relationships or in the professional world. All right, be blessed Peace.