Let it go!

What is one thing so many of us could let go of which would truly change our lives today?

Letting go of anxiety so we can increase our energy would greatly improve a lot of our lives right now. From bar-tenders to bitcoin bankers, we are realising that living with extreme anxiety is simply unsustainable

In fact, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), as one of the two most common mental health conditions, alongside depression, anxiety costs the global economy US$ 1 trillion each year

When I first thought about this, I was actually quite angry - how can we simply 'let go' of anxiety?

Well, the truth is, that some things are a lot harder to let go of than others, yet in reality a lot of us could genuinely deal with the actual problem we are anxious about a lot more effectively, if we were able to let go of at least some of our anxiety

Why is that then?

In today’s complex and ever changing world, it is no surprise that a lot of us carry feelings of anxiety which drain our energy and leave us feeling frazzled and flagging rather than flexible and flourishing. The great news is that we can let these emotional feelings - for example anxiety - go

What is definitely true is that there are certainly many unavoidable reasons to be feeling anxious and stressed, from world politics to inflation, to complexities in our own family and home life. The thing is, what a lot of us don't realise, is that a lot of our anxiety is self-inflicted. Yes, you read that right, this thing which we think we are out of control of, we may well have more control of after all

Of course, that's not the case for everybody, but in reality when we take a look at our own lives, we may find that we have unconsciously created some habits which drain our energy, resulting in feelings of stress and anxiety

What is great is that when we are aware of these 'anxiety habits', we are more able to to let them go, swapping them for new activities which refresh, reinvigorate and recharge us instead

So, what are these 'anxiety habits' which can cause stress and we may actually be able to let go of?

Let's focus on a really common one. An example of an anxiety habit we may have got into which  we can learn to let go of, is being constantly 'too busy'. This is a double whammy because not only do we feel stressed and overwhelmed about how much we believe we need to do every day, we often also therefore never find time for the activities which actually do refresh and recharge our energy and build our mental resilience. Thus making us less able to cope with the things in our life which may make us anxious, yet are outside our own influence

A very common 'anxiety habit' we can choose to let go of is the belief that being busy is the only way to be, given our to do list. Our anxiety habit is to keep piling on the tasks and keep feeling anxious about having so many tasks. Where as in truth, learning to say no to tasks so we have time to recharge our energy so we can build our mental resilience, may well be a life saver for a lot of us

To help ourselves move forward, the first step is to recognise that one of the biggest things we can do if we feel anxious is to take time to refresh and recharge by learning to say no to 'being constantly busy'. If you would like to know more about how to be more assertive and say no more often in your life, we have created an Upskill (our name for a course/masterclass) called Choosing Confidence to help you do this

What's really frustrating is that when we don’t make time for the regular practices which refresh, recharge and reinvigorate our mental resilience - for example taking time to simply be in nature, or calling a dear friend or family member to connect and catch up, we pay a price. And that price is anxiety, which depletes our energy. One of the biggest things we can do is to learn to say no, stopping ourselves from doing unnecessary tasks, taking things off the to do list so that we spend our time recharging, refreshing and reinvigorating our mental strength

We say life saver because when we are really busy our brain interprets constant business as a low-level form of threat or challenge. If there’s always something we “have to do,” our brain is going to keep us in a state of perpetual low to moderate fight or flight. This is not helpful because it means we experience a steady stream of stress hormones like cortisol as well as chronic inflammation. Both of which are useful in small doses now and then, but are bad news for us when they’re constant

Swapping always saying yes to tasks for spending effort identifying ways to regularly replenish our energy will create physical, mental, emotional and spiritual resilience. These are the four areas that build mental strength

In recognition of Mental Health awareness week we are re-launching a new, upgraded mini masterclass called Mental Resilience (£50) Our Mental Resilience Mini masterclass shares an abundance of tips and insights to refresh, reinvigorate and recharge

Practicing systematically expanding and renewing our energy in each area builds our resilience, our grit, and makes our mind a great place to be!

You are not alone

Having worked with over 14,000 high performers and high potentials, from University students to CEOs, we can see that there are many highly successful people who are in truth, living with a lot of anxiety because they don't have the mental resilience to manage the daily challenges of today's world - at work, at home, in their whole life, so we decided to make the mini masterclass accessible to all - hence the £50 price point

The mini masterclass shares tips, insights and practices that will help you refresh, reinvigorate and recharge based on Progressfull™'s model for building mental strength. The tips, insights and practices have been distilled from leading research in many disciplines including neuroscience, psychology and spiritual practices. This masterclass will teach you how to enhance your productivity, find balance, regain your energy, and as a result, optimise your mental resilience

So, that’s why we have created the Mental Resilience Mini masterclass (£50) - enabling more people to build their mental strength

You can move forward as you know where to focus your energy and effort – letting go of feeling anxious and/or stressed about things that are in reality out of your control. Swapping feeling overwhelmed by a never ending to do list, for saying no to tasks so you can prioritise building your mental resilience

As Mira Nair said,

"The challenge for us is to have the heart of a poet with the skin of an elephant"

Imagine if together with all of the people you love and care about, you learned to let go of your anxiety and built your mental resilience, your mental strength, wouldn't that be truly life enhancing

You can learn more about the (£50) Mental resilience masterclass here