When worry makes sense. Parenting during a global pandemic.
You know those times that you hear little tidbits of knowledge that shift how you view something? That is what Dawn Huebner does for my view of Worry and Anxiety.
We were so fortunate to have Dr. Dawn Huebner back to join us last night for a SYT Learn Live Call about “When Worry Makes Sense” and she shared some really great information. Dawn is a Psychologist, Coach, and Author of 9 award-winning books for children. Her insights that she openly shared with our community, provided the participants with some great take-away tools and ideas.
One of my favourite things about Dr. Huebner’s work is her analogies. In her talk last night she likened the amygdala (where your worry comes from!) to a smoke detector. When the smoke detector goes off in your house, it could be due to a big fire, or it could be because you have toast burning. Either way you are warned of possible danger - but only one of these situations is actually danger. People who have anxiety are not taking into account that there are false alarms and may assume the danger is significant and real.
So what do we do with our amygdala smoke alarm? We don’t want to get rid of our whole smoke alarm (obviously it has huge benefits to keep us safe!), but we do need to:
Teach people how to respond more effectively to the amygdala alarm
Change their relationship with fear and worry
Understand anxiety better
Be supportive of anxiety, but not accommodate it
In the world right now, there is a lot of anxiety and worry. We are in the middle of a pandemic that has completely shifted how the majority of the globe functions in their day to day lives. Dr. Huebner discussed how anxiety feeds on uncertainty….and well, we definitely have a lot of uncertainty right now too (school, work, finances, health….the list could go on and on).
Dawn’s chat last night provided some great insight into the process of worry and some tips for how to manage your relationship with worry. A key takeaway - just because you are afraid, does not mean you are in danger right now.
If you missed it, there is a replay available on the SYT Learn page of our website which you can find HERE.
If you want to learn even more about worry and anxiety, consider joining our Parent Membership Community to gain access to Dr. Dawn Huebner’s videos and content about worry which you can find HERE. You will not only gain access to this content but all of the expert content we have and monthly live calls with our members…as well as youth calls to support our kids.