10 Jun Want to Dramatically Lower Your Feelings of Anxiety and Stress? Science Says Stop Clumping
You might not have heard of “clumping”.
Or you might know it by another name.
Either way, if you experience stress and / or anxiety, and let’s face it, we all do, then you really should read this article …
via Inc.com by Jeff Haden
Feeling stressed? You’re not alone.
Studies show approximately four in five people say they experience stress at work. Half say stress negatively affects their behavior. And over 75 percent say stress results in headaches, fatigue, and problems sleeping. Clearly, stress is a problem.
So is how we tend to think about stress. Ask someone why they feel stressed and they’ll often provide a list: issues with their job, problems in their personal life, concerns about their health, and so on.
Most people don’t stress over just one thing, because most people can deal with one thing. They can deal with feeling afraid about a specific version of the future. Or worrying about a certain decision they think may come back to haunt them. Or feeling anxious about an upcoming presentation, or an uncomfortable conversation with an underperforming employee.
Those “one things” are what psychologists call granular emotions. Unlike a general feeling of being stressed, a granular emotion is a specific feeling like fear, worry, or anxiety. (On the flip side, compared to a feeling of unspecified happiness, a granular emotion might be pleased, delighted, or excited.)
Pile them all up, though — pile up all your worries and frustrations and fears — and granular emotions tend to feel more global. Instead of feeling concerned, or uncertain, or hesitant, you start to feel stressed.
That’s what psychologists call clumping: Perceiving emotions broadly rather than specifically.
And that’s a huge problem, because research shows that the more specifically you identify an emotion — the more granular you make it — the better…
… keep reading the full & original article HERE