Transcriber: Cláudia Sebastião Reviewer: Nika Kotnik
What you are about to experience is what watching a movie in the life
of an anxious person looks like.
We all start by watching the trailer first,
so let’s use the movie “Taken” for example.
No, no, no. I can't watch this anymore. I need to know what happens. Let's see.
Does the dad from “Taken” find his daughter?
Let’s see. I hope so. I hope...
So I can watch the rest of it.
Hm, let’s see...
Hm, okay... After some time,
Bryan, Bryan... Oh, okay.
Bryan finds Kim in an auction. Okay.
Now I can watch the rest of it peacefully.
I am so sorry if I gave you too much anxiety watching this.
But this,
this is my daily life.
Every time I watch a TV show,
I get anxious and look for spoilers to see how the story unfolds.
Not only do I like spoilers, I need them.
After some time I understood that this is how life works.
Life is made up of steps, and even though I have tried to skip some of them
because of my anxiety, (laughs) believe me, you can’t.
I know I should watch every second of a movie, but I can't.
It's enough that I have to go through life without spoilers.
And on top of that, I’m supposed to not look for spoilers in movies.
I’m sorry, that’s too much to ask from a self-proclaimed “person with anxiety”.
Anxiety
The American Psychological Association defines anxiety as “an emotion,
characterized by feelings of tension, worried thoughts,
and physical changes like increase of blood pressure.”
Spoiler alert: we all suffer a little bit of anxiety.
It's just different for everybody. Take me for example.
Since I was little, I have always been a nervous kid.
First day of class made me lose my sleep.
Ttalking in front of my classmates, that made me anxious.
My anxiety even got to the point that I wasn’t able to talk.
I wasn’t able to speak to my teachers
and ask them for permission to go to the bathroom.
Instead, I chose to not talk and pee myself.
How did I go from peeing myself to giving a TED Talk?
Over the years, I’ve developed some tips
that have helped me understand how to live a life with anxiety.
And I am honored to share with you these four tips.
Tip number one: take a chill pill.
This is the most common word people use nowadays.
It is so easy to say like, “Hey, take a chill pill”, but very hard to get done.
Look at me. I am standing here right now talking to you about how to
“take a chill pill” and how to live a life with anxiety,
while my mind is three weeks ahead, thinking of all the things I need to do.
That “chill pill” stands for “No need to hurry. One step at a time.”
But whenever that chill pill doesn’t work, I use the typical tip.
The tip everyone has heard about. The tip you literally cannot live without.
Drumroll, please, for tip number two:
breathe in, breathe out.
Breathing is everything. Breathing exercises can help your mind
and body get control of difficult situations.
They only take a few seconds and boom, they help you reduce your stress.
I am not a certified expert to give you the exercises, but...
I can probably say that yes, they do work.
But when breathing doesn't work, the gym rat comes in.
And that's tip number three. Exercise can help you clear your mind.
It gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy.
And happy people deal better with anxiety. So, be the gym rat.
I remember being in eighth grade, playing soccer and being the happiest
I have ever been.
Ninth grade comes in and I decided to quit my soccer team,
and I thought that soccer was taking away
so much of my time, just to find out that it was an outlet to calm
the anxiety that I had.
It wasn’t until 11th grade when I realized that
I not also wanted, but I needed it. Find the exercise that helps you.
It can be zumba classes, it can be tennis, it can be basketball and even soccer.
Start moving your body so you can stop moving your mind so much.
But when you don’t feel like exercising,
you can always use my last but not least,
my fourth tip: make a plan.
This is what a to-do list of a person with anxiety looks like.
I write down everything.
Writing down about the list of things I’m anxious about
only calms my anxiety for a second until it gives me more anxiety
because of all of the things I need to do.
But if your anxiety returns,
don't worry because you have either taken action or have a plan in place.
If you don't stick to your plan, don't be disappointed. Focus on small achievements.
These are my tools, my tips that have helped me understand
and live life with anxiety.
These are only four tips, but there are a billion more out there that can help you.
You just have to look for them.
The point of all of this is that you have to figure out which ones are yours.
Know that you are not alone
and anxiety is something that you should not be ashamed of.
In fact, according to the World Health Organization,
264 million people worldwide suffer from an anxiety disorder.
And I bet those are only the diagnosed cases.
The point of all of this is
we have already established the life is not a movie,
and no matter how much we want to,
we cannot get ahead and be prepared for what is coming.
But that is exactly what makes life exciting
and what makes me want to keep experiencing it.
Because even though I cannot look for spoilers,
I don't need them in order to survive and thrive.
And even though this all started as a guide for you
to understand life with anxiety,
I have realized that it was
So now I can proudly say. Andrea, spoiler alert:
stop trying to look for spoilers in your life. Thank you.
(Applause)