Less Anxiety

A major cause of anxiety is feeling out of control. In psychology this relates to the concept of, locus of control, or what effect you believe you have on things. If you believe what you do matters, you have a stronger internal locus of control. If you believe things are out of your control, then you have a stronger external locus of control. How can this knowledge help us relax?

For every situation there are always things in our control. Finding an agent or publisher for a book you've written can be very stressful. An author may think it's completely out of their control if their novel is chosen. To a degree they are right. But lets take a moment to think about some of the things the writer can still have control over during this process. They can decide what agencies they contact, how many queries are sent, if they will continue to edit in the meantime, and if they want to start their next book. And to manage the stressful feelings, there’s grounding activities, breathing exercises, and distraction techniques, all within their control to help them relax.

So if you're finding your anxiety soar, remember to give a boost to your internal locus of control by thinking of what you can do that will have an impact. The knowledge that there are things within your control, will rein in those stressful feelings.