Reframe “feelings of anxiety” to “feelings of uncertainty”

In counseling work, I often get people to reframe their anxiety from “feelings of anxiety” to “feelings of uncertainty” because that “feeling of uncertainty” is more fundamental I think.

It can help them to defuse from it at some level.

From “feelings of uncertainty”, we can pivot that to feelings of hope, openness, curiosity, possibility and creativity rather than just panic and anxiety.

So “uncertainty” is not bad. Life is a balance of certainty and uncertainty isn’t it?

Treat it like homeostasis like maintaining body temperature, glucose, sodium, calcium etc.

Too much is a problem. Too little is also a problem.

But if we simply view it as “anxiety” and that “anxiety” is a bad thing, then we may run into more problems.

So once we can pivot from “uncertainty” into possibility and hope, we can move forward with a different experience and possibly, a different outcome.

I wonder if you can relate.