What is expectation anxiety?

Anxiety is caused by our own expectations more than we realize. For example, a pothole in the road causes huge anxiety if you drive right into it, but if you see it in advance it’s manageable. So anxiety is caused by the expectation of a flat road when that fails to fit the facts.

How do you get rid of expectations?

How to Defeat Expectations

1. Put your oxygen mask first: The first step to getting rid of expectations is to treat yourself kindly.
2. Adjust the Way You Think. You cannot control what others think about you, but you can choose how you talk to yourself.
3. Speak Up.
4. Free Yourself and Free Others.
5. Stop Judging, Stop Expecting.

How does it feel when your expectations are met?

When one’s expectations are met, it can feel incredibly satisfying. However, when one’s expectations are not met, it can result in tremendous disappointment, frustration, and resentment (e.g., my crankiness at the unseasonable weather).

Why do old expectations cause anxiety?

Our brain evolved to hold on to old experience. It’s meant to protect us from having to touch fire more than once, or eat poison berries on a day when you’re hungry. But when old expectations cause anxiety, it’s good to know that you have some power to adjust them. To find that power, let’s take a closer look under the hood.

What are expectations in psychology?

Expectations tell us how to make sense of the world more than you realize. Your senses are always taking in more information than you can process. To make sense of the overload, the brain generates an expectation about the next chunk of information it is about to receive, and then it scans for a sensory input that matches.

What happens to your brain when the world exceeds your expectations?

When the world exceeds your expectations, a big surge of dopamine paves a big neural pathway. This is how the brain wires itself to find rewards, but it can leave us with the anxiety of misleading expectations. Once our peak myelin years are over, repetition and emotion are the tools we have to blaze new trails through our jungle of neurons.

What happens to your brain when you make false expectations?

If there’s a reasonable match between expected and actual, your brain releases a bit of dopamine and moves on. If it’s a bad match, cortisol is released, which motivates closer inspection. Cortisol helps us avoid being misled by false expectations, but it’s also the root of anxiety.