Overcoming Anxiety: Relaxation is not enough

In recent years dozens of articles have been published exhorting managers to reduce their levels of anxiety, worry less, think more positively and be less aggressive in their relationships with colleagues. Techniques which have been recommended to achieve these desirable goals include: relaxation therapy, yoga, meditation, exercise, hobbies, positive thinking, dietary therapy and many others. Writers have extolled the virtues of these techniques and a host of other distractions to achieve lasting mental well‐being. Certainly evidence exists that such techniques are of therapeutic value in making people feel better. The crucial question is whether these techniques actually make people better in a lasting way. To actually get better one has to be left with minimum anxiety (or self‐blame) and hostility (or blame of others). To get better manager, require a method of self‐observation and self‐assessment that will ensure that they will continue to be minimally anxious.