Fear and anxiety, and their management through interpretative frameworks.

Our way of interpreting reality greatly influences how fear and anxiety affect us.

Fear and anxiety are two closely related and relatively frequent psychological phenomena.There are many people who, in their daily lives, encounter situations that overwhelm them emotionally through this kind of experience: exams, work stress, family problems, etc.

Of course, part of what explains anxiety and fear is out there, in the objective reality that surrounds us. But we cannot forget that, at the same time, this torrent of emotions has to do with the way we interpret reality, a subjective element. Faced with this, it is key to know how to manage our frameworks of interpretation of reality and, through them, to manage our emotions as well.

Why anxiety and fear depend on the frames of interpretation.

It's clear that virtually no one is free from feeling a lot of fear or anxiety from time to time; it's simply something we can't control 100%.

However, we are not condemned to suffer from an excess of fear or anxiety from time to time, we are not condemned to suffer from excessive fear and anxietyIn the face of day-to-day challenges, we have room for maneuver to manage those unpleasant emotions in the best possible way and, moreover, to use them to our advantage to take action and achieve our goals. Part of what makes this possible has to do with our ability to know how to interpret what happens to us through a constructive lens and directed towards the goals that really matter to us, and not towards what we are afraid of losing or not being able to control.

One of the most important findings of cognitive psychology is that depending on the network of concepts through which we "filter" information from the outside, we feel one way or another, and not only that, but we adopt one predisposition or another when dealing with the problems that affect us. In other words, the cognitive schemes through which we interpret reality and our lives are manifested both in our emotions and in our objective behavior patterns, observable by others.

What role does executive coaching play in all this?

Executive coaching provides a number of tools with which we can frameworks of interpretation of reality capable of bringing us closer to our objectives; specifically, to those goals that meanspecifically, those goals that mean something to us, capable of stimulating us emotionally and intellectually.

This is very important when it comes to managing fear and anxiety, since these emotional phenomena are very prone to paralyze us for fear of doing something wrong, which is out of what "should be". At the same time, anxiety about the possibility of making a false step leads us to become obsessed with the idea of constantly gathering as much information as possible, something that pushes us to the limit. constantly, something that pushes us to the limit psychologically and also predisposes us to think too much and do too little, keeping us stagnant.

Silvia Guarnieri, Executive Coach and founding partner and Academic Director of Escuela Europea de Coaching, explains it with these words:

"The obsessive search for information to try to understand what is happening is like the effect of inspiring much more than necessary, as happens in anxiety. We fill ourselves with data trying to find a way out, an interpretation of what is happening to us that makes sense to us. We are anxious because we want to make no mistakes. We want to have the right interpretation of things weighing that way we will make the right decision".

On the role of the coach, Guarnieri adds:

"From coaching we accompany to internalize the idea that there is no correct interpretation of the facts, there is only one interpretation that is ours, and therefore we make ourselves responsible for it. The work is not to search tirelessly for the correct or perfect explanation of what happens, but the one that gives us power, that invites us to spread our wings, without giving too much importance to the fact that it is the fairest interpretation, since we know that the latter simply does not exist. All this assuming that we will almost certainly be wrong or at least we will correct the path as many times as necessary until we achieve the expected result".

Thus, executive coaching predisposes us to adopt an active attitude in the construction of frameworks of interpretation of reality, without fear of not doing it perfectly (which would paralyze us) and without taking for granted that we must "discover" the right way to see things, since the latter implies that almost all points of view are inadequate.The latter implies that almost all points of view are inadequate. Through this process of personal development, we create a way of interpreting things that suits us, is functional for us, and provides us with a way of managing emotions in a fluid and constructive way.

• You may be interested in, "Why is it important to know how to manage emotions?"

Are you interested in learning how to manage emotions?

If you want to develop your skills related to the management of anxiety and other forms of emotional expression, you may be interested in the School of Emotions project, you may be interested in the Escuela Europea de Coaching's School of Emotions project.. It is an online training program based on weekly classes conducted through the synchronous classroom system (with live sessions), with lectures, presentations and practical exercises, with constant technical support. If you want to know more, access the Escuela Europea de Coaching website.

Bibliographical references:

• Kasper, S.; Boer, J.A. & Sitsen, J.M.A. (2003). Handbook of depression and anxiety (2nd ed.). New York: M. Dekker.
• Phillips, A.C.; Carroll, D.; Der, G. (2015). Negative life events and symptoms of depression and anxiety: stress causation and/or stress generation. Anxiety, Stress, and Coping. 28 (4): pp. 357 - 371.