Anxious Leader

Dear Anxious Leader,

You are not bad. You aren’t wrong. And your anxiety isn’t going to keep you from progressing in your career, relationships, and health. But it is up to you to lead yourself through the journey.

When you take ownership of the path, the emotions, the thoughts, and the outcome, you take back power from the anxiety.

You become the leader, not the anxiety.

So where do you start?

Here are 4 simple steps to get out of your head and into your empowerment -

1. Awareness

Acknowledging the challenge gives you power to address it. Is it bad? No. But you’re probably reading this article because you feel stuck. Maybe you keep hitting road blocks and missing out on promotions. Or your kids are taking advantage of your kindness. Shoot, maybe you haven’t made it to the gym because you feel silly not knowing how to use the equipment. All of these link back to a discomfort you must be willing to feel in order to get a new result. which leads me to my next point…

2. Allow

Hard truth… avoiding your anxiety is likely increasing it. Go sit with it. You can even plug into one of my private meditations from Peaceful Leadership (the mindfulness mentorship for leaders) to feel the experience. Anxiety isn’t just a mental thing, it can be very physical as well, like tightness in the chest, trouble sleeping, disproportionate anger, short fuse, chronic stomach pain. When you allow yourself to experience the anxiety, the FEAR of anxiety lessens and the overall interaction becomes, well.. less scary.

3. Acceptance

This is where most people want to run, or judge, or blame themselves. But this time, what if you had your own back. Instead of getting frustrated with yourself about the discomfort, choose to have unconditional self acceptance towards yourself. Imagine how you would treat a child who was experiencing anxiety. You (hopefully) wouldn’t tell them to just suck it up. You (hopefully) wouldn’t get mad at them. You (hopefully) would show compassion and understanding. Do this for yourself.

4. Abundance

Now you get to choose, where do you want to go from here? The feeling of anxiety may still exist in your body and mind. How do you want to move forward? This may be a time for affirmations and remembering who you are in the face of discomfort. This may be a time for rest or self soothing, taking some warm tea and wrapping up in a blanket. This may be a time for movement, a chance to move the energy through your body. This may be a time to learn, what is the journey teaching you? This is where you turn the energy you don’t want into energy you do want.. this is where you LEAD yourself through the storm.

Remember, you can do great things even while experiencing discomfort. In fact, discomfort doesn’t have to be a negative thing. It’s a time to grow, to heal, to love, to improve. It can be whatever you want it to be. Watch what happens as you let go of judgement and embrace your unique journey.

xo Kasidy