The Seamus Fox Podcast.
This podcast has been created to share real life experiences from inspiring people in all walks of life, those who have engineered change in their own lives through a shift in thinking and beliefs. I want to share my own journey and have others share theirs so that it can help inspire others to crete the internal changes thats needed to create long lasting life changes.
The Seamus Fox Podcast.
Transforming Anxiety into a Tool for Personal Growth
What if anxiety could be your greatest ally in personal growth? Discover how to reframe your anxious moments as powerful indicators for self-improvement. I'll share insights from my own journey, including lifestyle choices that sabotage our mental well-being, like excessive drinking and poor self-care. We’ll explore the importance of authenticity and how creating a false persona can amplify anxiety and insecurity. By aligning our actions with our true selves, we can transform anxiety from a burden into a tool for personal growth. Hear about my experience giving a talk in Cork and the lessons learned about self-awareness and authenticity.
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Today I want to talk about anxiety and how to reframe anxiety. Anxiety is something that a lot of people I'm not going to say suffer with, but a lot of people experience think that they suffer with, and anxiety isn't a bad thing. Anxiety is your body and brain's way of giving you a signal to correct something, for you to look at what is going on in your physiology, what's going on in your psychology that needs to be addressed. So what I want to address and look at in this short podcast is how you can begin to reframe anxiety as a way of growth, a signal for growth, how you can explore anxiety to be viewed as a signal for certain areas in your life to be looked at and to improve, to be improved upon. So, first of all, let's get this out of the road. If you're smashing every single weekend, if you're drinking every single weekend, if you're doing even more than those things, if you're smashing every single weekend, if you're drinking every single weekend, if you're doing even more than those things, if you're not looking after yourself and then you're complaining about anxiety, well then, like that's the first thing that needs to be addressed. You can't smash every single weekend, get absolutely hammered, not sleep, feed yourself full of shit and then complain about anxiety. So that's one thing that needs to be addressed first and foremost, but there's other areas then, of course, in our life that we can look at. That can also give us signs of where I might need to make some corrections. So, when it comes to anxiety, our body and our brain has given us some sort of signal to say right, okay, something's out of balance here and within our psychology and within our physiology, we're always trying to create some sort of balance. We're always trying to create some sort of homeostasis. Now, is it ever always like that? Of course not, but we can bring ourselves back into balance again.
Speaker 1:So this week I was in Cork and I was giving a talk on Monday in front of army personnel, gardaí, emergency services, etc. And, like every time I go and do a talk, I'm really, really excited, I'm looking forward to it. But I'm also always trying to bring myself back to center again so that I don't get feelings of anxiety and so that I can be myself, I can be authentic to myself. Now here's the thing. Let's say that I'm going to do that talk and I project, before I go and do the talk, a certain image of myself, if I project myself as someone that I image of myself, if I project myself as someone that I'm not, if I put myself on a pedestal, if I big myself up, if I create a persona that's not really me, and then I have to show up as that person and I start talking about things that I'm not knowledgeable in, and I think that I have to be speaking about things that I'm not knowledgeable in. Then what's that going to do? That's have to be speaking about things that I'm not knowledgeable in, then what's that going to do? That's going to create a lot of anxiety. That's going to create a lot of symptoms and feelings of anxiety for me because I'm not being myself, I'm not being authentic to who I am, I'm not speaking from the heart, I'm not speaking about things that I've actually really studied, experienced and have knowledge in. So a lot of the times people are doing this creating a persona that's not really them, that's not authentic to them. That creates anxiety for them to actually live up to that persona, and you're always going to create those feelings of anxiety and you're always going to create those feelings of insecurity when you do things like that. So a lot of the times.
Speaker 1:It's not only that we need to address our lifestyle, our health, our fitness, our sleep and all the other things that have a massive impact on how we feel, but we also need to look at and address are we actually really being ourselves on how we feel? But we also need to look at and address are we actually really being ourselves? Are you really showing up as yourself? Are you showing up with a persona and personal development? If you break it down, persona the actual root meaning of persona means a mask and I think in society it's.
Speaker 1:It's so common for people to think that I need to be somebody else In order for me to succeed. I have to be somebody else In order for me to succeed. I can't really be myself. Now I get it and I understand that in order for us to change, essentially we do need to be someone else, because we do have to create different habits. Because we do have to create different habits, we do have to create different values. We might have to shift and change some beliefs, so essentially, we are trying to create someone else. I get all of that 100, but it also has to be authentic to yourself and it means that you're not creating a fake persona.
Speaker 1:You're not lying about who you are. You're not lying about the things that you've done. You're not lying about what you've studied and the things that you've achieved and then trying to project that onto others and then trying to go and live up to that persona, because that's when you're going to get all of those symptoms. You're going to get those feelings of anxiety and you're not going to feel like yourself. Most people want to be loved for who they are, but most people are afraid to be who they are Because we think that we're not going to be accepted for who we are. We think that if we just show up as ourselves, we'll not be accepted. Maybe we're not smart enough, maybe we're not intellectual enough, maybe we're not financially as successful as other people All of these different things. We create a lot of these scenarios a lot of the times in our head.
Speaker 1:So monday I drove to cork to do this talk. Cork for people that are listening and outside of ireland in the uk is the place at the very bottom of ireland. I live at the very top of ireland, travel to the very bottom of ireland. It's about a six hour drive and it was fantastic, really, really good, met a lot of really great people. Other speakers had flown in from the States, people from all around Ireland, and it was a fantastic event.
Speaker 1:But, as a reminder to myself every time I go to speak, every time I go to get on stage, every time I go to coach, I always have to bring myself back to myself. If I get feelings of anxiety or nerves, I need to bring myself back to center. I need to bring myself back to be who I am and if I can just show up as me, as authentically as possible, and speak from the heart and speak from experience and speak what I've actually studied and what I know, then I can't really go wrong because I'm not projecting something that I'm not on the other people. And then an expectation for me to live up to that which creates volatility in my emotions, creates volatility in my mind and creates feelings of anxiety. So so those things, those feelings, are, a lot of the times, signals for us to get realigned with being ourselves. They're signals that bring us back to be authentic.
Speaker 1:So if you're experiencing those things, ask yourself that question where am I not being myself? Am I really showing up as my authentic self? Am I really being me or am I wearing a mask? Am I projecting a fantasy on the other people that I'm this way and then I have to try and live up to that, or Am I actually really being who I am? Does that mean that you're not going to experience nerves and things like that? Of course not. You're going to experience those things.
Speaker 1:I get nerves when I go to speak in front of an audience. I get nerves sometimes if I'm speaking on Zoom and coaching up a group. That's normal. But real feelings of anxiety that can sometimes be crippling and sometimes limit you from taking action can sometimes come down to that simple thing which is I'm not being myself. Maybe I've projected a persona onto people and now I have to try and live up to that and I can't match it. So we can use those things to bring us back. We can use those feelings of anxiety to bring us back to ourselves, bring us back to center and ask ourselves a question am I really being myself? I can I really show up as who I really am and share from the heart, share that information, and you might look at that within your work, your career. You might look at that as a business owner, as a ceo. As a leader. You might look at that as a coach owner as a CEO. As a leader. You might look at that as a coach. As a speaker when am I not being myself and how can I address those things to bring myself back to who I really am and share from there? So anxiety isn't always a bad thing.
Speaker 1:People talk about oh, my anxiety, this and my anxiety that. Stop claiming it. It's a feeling, it's something that you can move through. It's a something for you to look at. What you need to address. Is it your sleep? Is it your health? Is it your nutrition? Is it your fitness? Are you smashing every weekend and then getting up on a monday with massive feelings of anxiety? Right, okay, well, there's a clear sign there that you need to change those weekends. Address something there. Or again, maybe it's more the psychology part of it, where maybe I'm projecting a fake persona of who I actually am and now I have to try and match that persona. That's not actually me and it's creating a lot of anxiety.
Speaker 1:Okay, guys, before you go, what I would love you to do is I would love you to rate the podcast. I would love you to also go to my YouTube channel where I'm now producing more long form content. If you could go there and subscribe, I would really appreciate it If you could also share my podcast on, or give it a rating on, spotify and Apple, etc. It means a lot to me. It shows me that I am reaching people who are resonant with the information. It's creating value for people and it also helps me grow the podcast also. So, again, I appreciate it If you can like share this podcast or share an episode that has resonated with you, with other people, and give it a rating. Um, it really helps me and the podcast grow. Okay, guys, until the next one, bye.