Create A Ritual To Reduce Anxiety Before Doing Anything Important

Some situations aggravate our anxiety and really test our ability to control it. Think of job interviews, big presentations, exams or the first day of something new. Almost all of us need an extra dose of self-confidence in situations like these, and sometimes we can’t find it.

For some, these situations will only give them a little extra excitement, and they handle it relatively easily. For others, they throw them off balance, and it is very difficult to recover afterwards.

Some people see these episodes as stressful, bordering on traumatic. The truth is that almost everyone is nervous before important moments.

A certain degree of fear is inevitable when we are faced with an important situation. However, there is a trick, or a method, that can help us keep anxiety from getting the best of us.

It was designed by experts from Harvard University and is tried and true. Here we will tell you what it is.

A trick to deal with anxiety

This method was developed by psychologists from Harvard Business School. They designed it based on studies done on these temporary crises. According to their findings, what we are going to do in these cases is a ritual, a series of actions of great symbolic value.

Experts have shown that when a person creates and then performs a ritual to help them deal with anxiety, it generally works very well.

To verify their theory, they did an interesting experiment. They needed a group of people who were very nervous. So they told the group that they had to sing a difficult song in front of a large audience, in just a few minutes.

They observed that many of the participants had a kind of ritual that they did. The majority of them said out loud: “Calm down” or “It’s not that bad”, or the classic “You can do it”.

They did so with the aim of reducing the anxiety they felt. However, these actions do not seem to be very effective.

The researchers selected some people from this group, and used a different strategy. They asked this group to make a drawing that showed how they felt at that moment. Then they had them tear it apart and throw it in the trash. Those who did this simple exercise managed to deal with their anxiety better.

Controlling anxiety in difficult moments

Psychologists say that reminding yourself that you need to be calm is not really the best way to stay calm. They indicate that it is as ineffective as telling someone who has gone out of their mind to calm down.

Sometimes we end up doing the opposite: we irritate the person even more. The same thing happens with our own anxiety. You tell yourself to “calm down”, but you only get more nervous, because you have to deal with your frustration on top of that.

The anxiety before important events actually cause is an expectation of losing control. Not knowing what will happen, and not knowing how to control the variables that can lead to negative results.

This is why an automatic ritual, as the study suggested, will help us stop expecting that we will lose control of what is to come. And if the order of the actions you take is of special importance to you, it will be even more effective.

Make a ritual

To conclude,  creating and performing a ritual before a stressful situation can reduce anxiety. Now, it’s just a ritual if it’s always done the same way.

Singers sometimes just warm up before a show. Soccer players sometimes touch the grass on the court, cross their arms, or run on the court in a certain way. Some TV hosts drink tea or sleep five minutes before going live.

Here are some examples of effective rituals. Do a series of breathing exercises while remembering times when you were strong or looking at pictures of people who inspire you. It can even be a picture of yourself at another time in your life.

If it’s your own picture, it’s best if it reminds you of a moment similar to the one you are going through. You have probably gone through similar challenges where you did not have total control, but it still worked out. It is also wise to write down your biggest fear on a piece of paper, chew on it, and spit it out.

None of this is magic. R itualer that these are only meant to build your conscious and unconscious forces. No matter how you do it, create your own symbolic ritual. Strange as it may seem, it is a great way to stop your anxiety as well as the negative thoughts that cause it.