No-fuss anxiety tips #19
See the big picture
Welcome to blog number 19 in this no-fuss series on anxiety, made up of 20-short articles with simple tips and techniques for managing anxiety, drawing on therapeutic thinking from a range of psychological and psychotherapy theories.
What these tips won’t do is explore the origins and purpose of anxiety for you – this type of deeper exploration is what therapy offers. That said, having practical strategies for managing anxiety is a great place to start. Each article is designed to be quick read. So, let’s get into technique number 19: see the big picture.
The role of vision in your automatic nervous system
Anxiety involves a physical and physiological response to perceived threat through your ANS system (automatic nervous system). One of the physiological changes that takes place when we detect danger and feel fear is the dilation of your pupils. The pupils in your eyes widen so that they can take in more visual information when danger is perceived. That’s a useful response when you need to respond to an immediate and serious threat. You’re in the best place to zone-in on the threat, watch it and respond. However, if you experience anxiety readily, chronically and at times of low risk or difficulty, it’s easy to forget the bigger picture. Your pupils are homed in on details of perceived threat and risk and can overlook the signs of safety also in the environment.
Your pupils adapt to signals from the brain that danger is present
Try softening your gaze and seeing the bigger picture
To help manage anxiety, you can experiment with softening and widening your gaze when you are not at immediate and serious threat. If you’ve made an assessment that you are not in danger, and are in a safe environemnt, try allowing your eyes to take a softer view that allows you to take in visual data from a wider field. Seeing – literally - a wider landscape with a softer gaze signal to your brain that there is safety.
Nature offers wide vistas.
Looking at a wide landscape with a softer gaze signals to your brain there’s safety.
Look up, step outside
If you spend much of your day zoned-in on a computer screen, look up occasionally and take in more of your surroundings. Step outside and let your gaze be soothed by a bigger, vaster horizon.
Seeing the metaphorical “big picture”
And, you can also think of “seeing the big picture” in a symbolic way. If you face criticism from someone, how can you see the bigger picture. How many people have a problem with you? Everyone, or some? Is it just a one or two people? In this way, you can support yourself by considering more information, more data. Someone saying that your work is not good enough does not equal “I am not good enough”.
There’s just one final blog within this anxiety series still to come. I hope there’s been plenty to support you with anxiety from the previous articles.
Get in Touch
If you want to know more about how counselling can help you with a deeper exploration of your anxiety, do make contact with me, Claire Law. We can talk through how online counselling or face-to-face counselling at my therapy room in Preston can help manage your anxiety.