How To Make Your Anxiety Work For You (Instead Of Against You)

Graphic by Dana Davenport

This article originally appeared in the July/August 2016 issue of SELF. For more from the July/August issue, subscribe to SELF and download the digital edition. This full issue is now available on national newsstands.

You’ve spent months training for a 10K, and it’s finally race day. Or you’re about to walk into a conference room to deliver a big presentation. Then a familiar feeling kicks in, seemingly out of nowhere: Your heart is pounding out of your chest, your stomach is doing somersaults, and your palms are sweating. You’re nervous, but it’s go time. How will you handle those uncomfortable sensations? When it comes to succeeding—on a racecourse, onstage, in an interview—managing the rush of adrenaline that comes with stress can be just as crucial as the right gear or training plan.

Anyone whose predate jitters ended with too much rosé—or who has shaken like a leaf giving a wedding toast—knows the power of mind over, well, everything. “There’s a direct connection between emotions and thoughts,” says clinical sports psychologist John Sullivan, coauthor of The Brain Always Wins: Developing Successful Brain Management. “We feel first, then we act.”

The biological chain reaction that occurs when the stakes are high starts with those feelings of apprehension and excitement. When you get information (like seeing a starting line), it goes straight to your amygdala—the part of your brain that helps control your emotions. If you’re in a high-pressure situation, your initial feeling is often one of anxiety. Your amygdala sends a “danger, danger” signal to your hypothalamus, which then prompts your adrenal glands to release a surge of hormones, including cortisol and adrenaline. They crank up your heart rate and blood pressure while increasing glucose levels to help your blood carry more fuel to your muscles.

In a fight-or-flight situation, that extra oomph could save your life. But before an important meeting? It just makes you freak out. “Your body responds to the fear of every situation as if you were under physical attack,” says sports psychologist Jonathan Fader, Ph.D., author of Life as Sport: What Top Athletes Can Teach You About How to Win in Life. “The sympathetic nervous system is like a smoke alarm, and it goes off if there’s the slightest hint of a fire.” Most of us call that intense cascade of feelings an adrenaline rush, but sports psychologists tend to refer to it as pre-competition anxiety. 

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