Do you frequently feel overwhelmed, anxious, or nervous? Do these feelings interfere with your life? You are not alone. Anxiety is extremely common and often interferes with everyday life. Research has shown that connecting to your values can be effective in reducing anxiety.
Why anxiety interferes with your personal life or work success
People who are frequently anxious often experience their internal feelings as all-encompassing, overwhelming, and threatening. To manage these experiences, individuals often engage in avoidance – such as skipping a social event, avoiding speaking up at work, or not going out to the store. Unfortunately, avoidance backfires and actually increases the intensity and frequency of your difficult feelings.
How living a value-centered life can help
Living a value-centered life doesn’t mean that you have to become Mother Teresa, Mahatma Gandi, or an otherworldly saint. Typically, value-based actions are not monumental gestures. It does mean that you consider how to connect what you are already doing as part of your everyday routine with your values. When you go shopping, you can offer gratitude to the retail workers that you encounter. When you visit family or friends, you can choose to show up lovingly. You can bring your values to anything you do.
By choosing to live according to your values, according to what’s important and meaningful to you, you can decrease avoidance, experience more satisfaction, and build self-esteem.
Values can help you feel more grounded and less anxious
Values are very different than goals. Goals are future-focused and have defined destinations, such as learning a new skill at work or losing 10 pounds. Values are more directions on a compass than specific targets, such as being honest when dating or being physically active.
Values can guide our decisions and help us make choices that are consistent with who we want to be. Values outlast goals but can support goals. For example, you may value knowledge and have a specific goal (such as earning a BA). The value that you place on knowledge will affect how you study for your BA, and how you approach learning opportunities even after you have earned your degree.
The more value-centered your life becomes, the more you engage in behaviors that align with your own values. Goals focus on satisfying your needs. Values give you direction for the specific actions that you take part in every day.
Practical steps that you can take to feel and function better
In therapy, you can expect help articulating your own values and exploring how anxiety and avoidance have limited your ability to be value-centered. We will adapt tools to lessen your avoidance behaviors while building behaviors consistent with your values.
People with a strong sense of purpose are better able to robustly manage the ups and downs of life. When you have a sense of purpose, and value-centered living helps you build purpose, you can better keep your emotional balance even while experiencing difficulties. This resilience enables you to worry less and feel less out of control.
Reach out for help
For anxiety therapy in Overland Park with Caryn Hess, get in touch today. Call today, or fill out the contact form for a complimentary consultation and take the first step to a truly liberated life. Online therapy is available.
References
- Michelson, S. E., Lee, J. K., Orsillo, S. M., & Roemer, L. (2011). The role of values-consistent behavior in generalized anxiety disorder. Depression and anxiety, 28(5), 358–366.
- Hayes-Skelton, S. A., Orsillo, S. M., & Roemer, L. (2013). An Acceptance-Based Behavioral Therapy for Individuals with Generalized Anxiety Disorder. Cognitive and behavioral practice, 20(3), 264–281.