Anxiety, Mentos & Coke

How is anxiety like Mentos in Coke?

If you look at anxiety as a build up of pressure that may explode when presented with a challenge beyond our skill, you can change three factors to decrease the reaction:

~ Change what you put in the coke, which can decrease the challenge.

~ Change the container, which builds our capacity or skill.

~ Change our emotional state, which may decrease our reaction when given a challenge.

Stay tuned for more self-regulation related videos!

Transcript

* Rough Transcript *

When we think about our anxiety, you might think about the explosion that happens when you put Mentos in Coke. So when you put a lot of Mentos into the Coke, you get a big explosion, right? So we can change the size of that explosion and how it looks and how it’s managed by changing a variety of factors.

So when you think of anxiety as being that the challenge is higher than your skill at the time, then we can reduce the challenge by reducing the number of Mentos that we put in. So if you put a whole bunch in, you’re going to get a huge explosion. If you just put one in, the explosion is not going to be so big.

So we can reduce the load by reducing the number of Mentos we put in. You could also reduce the load by thinking about different things that you can put in there. Maybe they’re candies that don’t have a big reaction. Maybe pop rocks have a different kind of reaction or other candies have no reaction at all.

So you could actually change the task to something that’s easier for you to do. Another way that we can reduce the anxiety or reduce the reaction or the explosion is by changing the container. So if we have a big container that has a wide opening, then the explosion is not really going to be very big.

In fact, it might not even come out. It might bubble up, but it’s not going to be as explosive as it would in a small bottle with a small opening. And by increasing the size and opening of the container, we’re actually increasing our skill so that we can handle the challenge better next time. And then finally, another way that we can reduce the size of the explosion is by actually changing the liquid that’s inside the bottle.

So we can either take the existing liquid and open it up and let it flatten so that it’s not as carbonated. Then it’s not going to be a huge reaction the way it would. Or we could change the liquid entirely to something that’s not going to react. And that is similar to changing our inner state. So changing our emotional state, changing our mood so that we are actually better able to handle a challenge when it comes our way.

So you can see how much is left in each of the containers and by reducing the load and increasing the size of the container, we were able to manage to keep more liquid in the container. Now, it might be tempting to try and screw that lid on. super tight, but oftentimes when we try too hard to keep our anxiety contained without letting it go and without any release, we tend to find ourselves at some point exploding even more than we would have if we found some way to let it out in a more healthy way.

So what are some ways that you have been able to let out your anxiety in a positive way and to build your capacity so that you can deal with things more easily?