A Technique to Save You from a Lifetime of Anxiety (Use Daily)

About this video

• Video Title: A Technique to Save You from a Lifetime of Anxiety (Use Daily)
• Channel: Mr Clark's Classroom
• Speakers: Mr Clark
• Duration: 00:15:43

Overview

This video introduces a practical technique called "ambivalating" to help manage anxiety stemming from indecisiveness and conflicting emotions. The speaker explains that ambivalence, or having multiple contradictory feelings about something, is a normal human experience. The technique involves exploring and fully feeling both sides of an emotional conflict to broaden one's perspective and facilitate healthier decision-making, moving away from the unhelpful advice to "just make up your mind."

Key takeaways

• The Problem of Ambivalence: Humans naturally experience ambivalent feelings, holding multiple, often contradictory, emotions about people or situations. This is a normal and healthy part of being human.
• "Just Make Up Your Mind" is Unhelpful: The common advice to "just make up your mind" is frustrating and nonsensical because it ignores the emotional complexity of a situation and the impossibility of cognitively controlling feelings.
• Introducing "Ambivalating": This technique, described by Pete Walker, involves consciously wavering back and forth between opposing emotional experiences to fully explore both sides of a conflict.
• Expanding the Range of Feeling: Instead of repressing one side of ambivalence, which can lead to anxiety, the technique encourages acknowledging and exploring all associated emotions. This widens the perspective and provides a broader basis for decision-making.
• Emotional vs. Intellectual Problems: Many problems initially perceived as intellectual are actually emotional. The ambivalating technique helps address the underlying emotional issues by focusing on how one truly feels about the situation.
• Book Recommendations: The video recommends Pete Walker's "The Tao of Fully Feeling" and "Complex PTSD" for further exploration of these topics.