Mastering Your Surroundings

How Cognitive Skills Can Tame Anxiety and Pave the Way to Success

Anxiety has a way of creeping in when we least expect it, like an uninvited guest who makes themselves comfortable on your couch without asking. It’s that restless feeling in the pit of your stomach, the gnawing worry that something, somewhere, is about to go wrong. But here’s the thing: anxiety doesn’t thrive in environments we know and understand. When the conditions of our problems and the surrounding environment are familiar and under control, anxiety has little room to breathe. It’s in the unknown, the unfamiliar, and the unpredictable that anxiety finds its footing.

Photo by Sydney Sims on Unsplash

So, what if we could shift the balance? What if, instead of letting anxiety control us, we could control the environment that feeds it? This isn’t about creating a perfect, stress-free bubble — life is too messy and unpredictable for that. It’s about mastering your surroundings, getting to know them so well that they become less of a threat and more of an opportunity. By honing our cognitive skills, we can turn down the volume on anxiety and turn up the dial on success.

Let’s start with the basics: when we walk into a situation that feels familiar and predictable, our brains can relax. Think of it like being in your own home — there’s a comfort in knowing where…