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<\/div>A small amount of anxiety can help you think more creatively<\/p>\n
Hollandse Hoogte\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n
WHEN we are worrying about an upcoming deadline or feeling overcome before an exam, it can seem absurd, almost insulting, to imagine that this has any advantages.<\/p>\n
There can be no doubt that extreme anxiety is highly debilitating. At moderate levels, however, our nervous feelings can make us smarter problem-solvers and fuel original thinking. Anxiety may even benefit our health.<\/p>\n
To understand why, we can see anxiety as a kind of alarm bell. It draws our attention to a situation that requires action, and greater sensitivity to those signals helps us respond more rapidly. \u201cThe physiological arousal and worrying thoughts operate quicker than our conscious evaluation of how demanding a situation is and whether we have the resources to handle it,\u201d says Todd Kashdan<\/a>, director of the Well-Being Laboratory at George Mason University in Virginia. \u201cThis heightened awareness helps us make more informed decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n As evidence, Kashdan points to research that tested undergraduates\u2019 anxiety levels before tricking them into believing that they had infected a computer with a virus. Those who were more anxious ignored distractions<\/a> when on their way to tell the IT team about the problem.<\/p>\n Similar reasoning may explain why one aspect of the personality trait neuroticism \u2013 related to worry and vulnerability \u2013 was found in another study to be linked to lower mortality during the study period<\/a>. If you are constantly worried about your health, you might be more likely to seek medical\u2026<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n