Podcast Summary
Managing Anxiety for Lawyer Stress: Recognize the difference between baseline anxiety and intense episodes, manage physical sensations and underlying thoughts to effectively reduce anxiety
Understanding and managing anxiety is a crucial part of dealing with lawyer stress. The host, Cara Lowenstahl, shares her personal experience of how anxiety was her default emotional state while practicing law, even before the intense episodes. She emphasizes the importance of recognizing the difference between the baseline anxiety and the intense episodes. Cara introduces two levels of dealing with anxiety: the first level is managing the immediate feeling of anxiety, focusing on the physical sensations in the body. The second level is addressing the underlying thoughts and beliefs that trigger the anxiety. By combining these two levels, the impact on managing anxiety becomes more effective. Listeners are encouraged to check out Cara's new podcast, "Unfuck Your Brain," for more tools and techniques to tame their brains and reduce anxiety in all areas of their lives.
Understanding the physical sensations of anxiety: Recognize and address the physical symptoms of anxiety to calm down the brain and body, reducing anxiety's intensity
When experiencing anxiety, the physical sensations are a result of the brain's fear response. These sensations, such as a racing heart, tightness in the chest, and difficulty breathing, are triggered by the release of hormones like cortisol and adrenaline. To calm down, it's essential to reassure your brain and body that you are safe. This can be achieved by using the prefrontal cortex, the rational part of your brain, to calm down the limbic system, which governs the fear response. By recognizing and addressing the physical symptoms of anxiety, you can begin to reduce their intensity and ultimately manage your anxiety more effectively.
Body scan exercise to distract from anxiety: Describing physical sensations during a body scan exercise can help distract the brain from anxious thoughts and calm it down
Practicing a body scan exercise can help alleviate anxiety by distracting the brain from anxious thoughts and reassuring it that you're not in immediate danger. During this exercise, instead of focusing on emotions, you describe the physical sensations in your body as if you were explaining them to an alien. This not only distracts your brain but also helps calm it down by making it clear that the situation is not life-threatening. By focusing on physical sensations, you give your brain a new task, preventing it from getting stuck in a loop of anxious thoughts. Remember, the goal is to describe the physical sensations without using emotional language, as repeating the word "anxious" would negate the purpose of the exercise.
Recognizing emotions as physical sensations: Describing emotions as bodily sensations can help reduce anxiety and prevent panic attacks through a body scan technique, allowing for distraction and decreased perceived threat level.
Recognizing and describing emotions as physical sensations in the body can help reduce anxiety and prevent panic attacks. This technique, known as a body scan, allows individuals to distract their brains from negative thought patterns, decrease the perceived threat level, and avoid additional emotional complications that come with labeling emotions. When feeling anxious, take a moment to check-in with your body and describe the sensation in terms a neutral observer would understand. Repeat this description to yourself as needed until the anxiety subsides. It may take several attempts or minutes to fully relieve the anxiety, but it is still a more productive use of time than continuing to engage in anxious thoughts. Remember, it's important to approach anxiety management from a calm and mindful perspective, rather than rushing to take action based on the initial feelings of anxiety. Once your body is calm, you can then address the thoughts causing the anxiety.
Our thoughts cause our feelings, not external circumstances: Recognizing and addressing the underlying thoughts causing anxiety can help manage emotions effectively
Our thoughts, not external circumstances, are the root cause of our feelings. This concept might be new to many, as we're often taught that external circumstances produce our emotions. However, this is not the case. For instance, if you receive an angry email but never read it, you won't experience any feelings about it. Similarly, two people can experience entirely different feelings about the same event due to their unique thoughts and interpretations. Therefore, when we feel anxious, it's essential to identify the underlying thought causing the emotion. For example, if you're anxious about arguing a motion because you've never done it before, the root cause of your anxiety is likely a thought like "I might fail" or "I might look stupid." By recognizing and addressing these thoughts, we can learn to manage our emotions more effectively.
Our feelings are caused by our thoughts about circumstances, not the circumstances themselves: Recognizing that our feelings are a result of our thoughts, not external circumstances, can help reduce anxiety and improve performance during stressful situations
Our feelings are not caused by external circumstances, but rather by our thoughts about those circumstances. During a deposition, for instance, if opposing counsel is being difficult and causing anxiety, it's not their behavior that's causing the anxiety, but rather our thoughts about their behavior. Similarly, during a seemingly chaotic situation like a noisy apartment building, our thoughts about how things should be different can cause frustration and anxiety, even though there's no real problem. By recognizing this and focusing on our thoughts instead of the circumstances, we can reduce our anxiety and improve our performance.
Identifying anxious thoughts: Recognizing and questioning anxious thoughts can help reduce anxiety by providing perspective and engaging critical thinking skills
Recognizing and identifying our anxious thoughts can help us gain perspective and reduce anxiety. By noticing the thoughts that trigger anxiety, such as "The partner's mad at me" or "I think I screwed up," we can begin to see them as just thoughts, not reality. Writing down these thoughts can make them seem less overwhelming and help us engage our "lawyer brain" to critically evaluate them. As lawyers, we are trained to consider alternate explanations and outcomes, and we can apply this skill to our thoughts. By questioning the validity of our anxious thoughts and considering alternative perspectives, we can alleviate anxiety and improve our performance. The first step is recognizing and acknowledging our anxious thoughts, and the second step is using our critical thinking skills to challenge and shift them. This two-part approach can serve as an effective "chill pill" for managing anxiety.
Leave a review for a chance to win a free coaching session: Review the podcast to enter a giveaway for a free coaching session, and join The Clutch community for daily expert coaching and supportive tools to manage anxiety
By leaving a review for The Lawyer Solution podcast, you'll not only be helping the show, but you'll also have a chance to win a free coaching session with the host. During this session, you'll get personalized guidance on managing work-related stress and anxiety. Additionally, the host encourages listeners to check out The Clutch, an online community where you can learn tools to deal with anxiety, fear, and other negative emotions. The Clutch offers daily expert coaching, a supportive community, and bonus workbooks to help you manage various sources of anxiety. Ultimately, the goal is to help you live a life where anxiety is rare and manageable, allowing you to enjoy your life instead of being controlled by your negative emotions.
