Dr. Diana Hill, a clinical psychologist and leadership coach specializing in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, shares insights on coping with anxiety in a world increasingly influenced by AI. She emphasizes the importance of personal values when navigating change and offers strategies to reframe anxiety. The conversation highlights the role of anger in transformation and how challenging feelings can foster growth. Listeners are encouraged to embrace their emotions as they confront uncertainty and find empowerment in their values.
Identifying the link between anxiety and our core values allows individuals to focus on what truly matters in their lives.
Embracing emotions like anxiety can facilitate personal growth and adaptation to change by guiding more purposeful actions.
Deep dives
Understanding Anxiety as a Signal
Anxiety often signals the value we place on important aspects of our lives, such as job stability and personal fulfillment. The fears we experience around AI's impact on the workplace can indicate what we deeply care about, highlighting the inherent link between our emotions and values. For example, if someone feels anxious about being replaced by automation, it may reveal their strong connection to their role and its significance in their identity. This understanding can serve as a guide for addressing the underlying concerns, allowing individuals to focus on what truly matters to them.
The Role of Values in Managing Emotions
Identifying the values driving our emotions is crucial for generating constructive behaviors. For instance, if a person finds that their anxiety links to a value of human connection, they can prioritize actions that foster relationships in their workplace. Engaging with these deeper values enables individuals to claim a sense of agency, shifting their focus from suppressing negative feelings to acting on what they cherish. This process of aligning actions with values cultivates psychological flexibility, a key component in adapting to change.
Harnessing Emotional Energy for Action
Embracing emotions like anxiety and anger can serve as catalysts for positive change when channeled effectively. Recognizing that emotions provide information about our core desires allows us to utilize them in a manner that drives action. For example, instead of letting fear about job security paralyze decision-making, one can use that energy to learn more about AI and its implications for their career. By understanding the functional roles of emotions, individuals can turn feelings of discomfort into purposeful explorations that enhance personal growth.
Building Distress Tolerance Skills
Developing distress tolerance skills is essential for navigating uncertainty in the evolving job landscape. Individuals who lack these skills may react impulsively or become overwhelmed by discomfort, which can lead to narrow career paths or explosive emotional responses. Grounding techniques, such as identifying and naming emotions, allow people to create space for feelings without becoming overwhelmed. This practice fosters resilience, empowering individuals to adapt to future uncertainties while remaining anchored in their values and aspirations.
Sometimes, you have to look scary change in the eye and approach it with flexibility instead of fear. Dr. Diana Hill is a clinical psychologist and leadership coach who specializes in ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy), and we speak to her this week as part of our month-long series on artificial intelligence and work.
GenAI and how it is impacting your job might be stirring up all kinds of emotions for you - including anger - and Hill explains techniques you can use to change your frame of mind and improve your relationship with all this change. We discuss the importance of values when navigating uncertainty and anxiety.