^This is a continuation of my series on emotions and self-knowledge^
Anxiety
Anxiety is the dread over expected harmful events. From an evolutionary perspective, increased anxiety serves to increase vigilance to potential threats in the environment as well as increase the tendency to take proactive actions regarding such possible threats. The body often mobilises itself to meet the perceived threat: Muscles become tense, breathing is faster, and the heart beats more rapidly.
When I have to bring up an unpleasant topic with someone. Or remembering it afterwards.
Can you give a recent example?
For some time now I noticed a shift in how things are handled in the company I work at (small local company, when I joined we were 10 employees, now 3 years later were at 40). We used to be proud that our company is employee-friendly and not like big corporations, but recently it started to turn into ‘company vs employees’. I needed to express my concerns and set up a meeting with my boss who is also the owner of the company. The days before I was really anxious and constantly kept thinking about how the conversation might turn out and what would happen after that. In the end it was not that bad but I was really nervous at the time and came off as insecure, which makes me anxious remembering it.