--- title: "Six questions that help you not get stuck in anxiety: a column by coach Olga Grytsyk" description: "In a column for Wave RBC.UA, coach Olga Grytsyk offers six questions that help you not get stuck in anxiety during continuous air-raid alerts, distinguish real risks from imagined scenarios, and conserve your strength." date: 2026-09-04T10:22:01.000Z lang: en url: https://xab.info/en/posts/six-questions-that-help-you-not-get-stuck-in-anxiety tags: [anxiety-management, mental-health, psychology, wellness, ukraine-air-raids] publisher: "XAB.info" --- # Six questions that help you not get stuck in anxiety: a column by coach Olga Grytsyk ![Woman meditating in lotus position with closed eyes, practicing mindfulness to manage anxiety](https://xab.info/media/2026/09/04/shes-voprosov-kotorye-pomogut-ne-zastryat-v-trevoge/shes-voprosov-kotorye-pomogut-ne-zastryat-v-trevoge-1.webp) ## 🎯 Key Points - Coach Olga Grytsyk offers six self-check questions that help you avoid sliding into an "everything is lost" state during continuous alerts. - First principle: if the action has already been done, fear has fulfilled its function and can be "let go." - Instead of predicting the future, the author advises planning actions in different scenarios and relying on a daily routine. - A filter against rumination: bring the thought back only when new data appears. - In cases of insomnia, inability to work, and panic attacks, the author recommends turning to specialists rather than waiting for it to pass on its own. For a full day now, air-raid alerts have been sounding almost nonstop in Kyiv — day and night, with only brief "coffee breaks." Under such conditions, psychological tension accumulates faster than a person can even react to it, and this is precisely when the question of how not to lose your own resources comes to the fore. In a column for the Wave lifestyle project of RBC-Ukraine, coach Olga Grytsyk answers that question, offering a set of six questions that help you avoid sliding into a "everything is lost" state, distinguish real risks from imagined scenarios, and conserve your strength while uncertainty persists. The state the author describes is well illustrated by the scene of a meditation in the lotus pose on a yoga mat: a person closes their eyes, rests their hands on their knees in a mudra, and focuses on their breathing — the simplest anchor that brings attention back into the body and into the present moment. The column's starting point is a quote from the Ukrainian philosopher Volodymyr Yermolenko, who on Facebook describes what is happening as a "concentration camp principle": relentless pressure in which "you have not a single minute for yourself, for your world, for your thoughts," when it is impossible to fall asleep, to daydream, or to be alone with yourself. In his words, the inner resistance to this is "to have your own intellect, your own feelings, your own will" — that is, your own culture, society, and state. Grytsyk acknowledges that he is right on a worldview level, but stresses: all of this requires strength, which is drained by constant anxiety, inner tension, and fear. If you cannot get rid of them all at once, you should at least partly make them "play on our field" — and for that the author offers a sequence of self-checks that are accessible to anyone without special training. The full original article is published at wave.rbc.ua. ### First question: is there an action here? Fear and anxiety have a real function: they make you anticipate risks and prepare for them. That is why the key self-check becomes the question of action. If you have already done everything that depends on you, there is no point in endlessly replaying apocalyptic scenarios in your head. The formula the author offers is concise: "there is an action — do it; there is no action — fear has fulfilled its function and may be free." This allows you to stop treating anxiety as an enemy and start using it as a signal that fades out as soon as the preparation task is closed. ### Second question: what will I do in the different scenarios? The second technique is to stop predicting the future as such, because that is the realm of fantasy, not facts. Instead of the question "how long will this last?" the author suggests asking yourself a practical one: "what will I do if this goes on for a few more days, a week, a month?" In this way attention shifts from the uncontrollable (the duration of the crisis) to the controllable (your own actions in each scenario). A person stops being a passive observer of uncertainty and becomes the author of a response plan, which in itself lowers the level of anxiety. ### Third question: has any new data appeared? The third technique is aimed against rumination — the obsessive, repeated replaying of the same thoughts, which, in the author's words, "is terribly exhausting." Here a simple filter works: each time an anxious thought returns, you need to ask yourself whether any new data has appeared. If yes — you can reconsider your decision; if no, then the anxiety has simply been "put on the next round" without any new content. This question helps you distinguish a real update of information from an inner echo and not waste energy re-chewing what is already known. ### Fourth question: do I have a plan and a routine? The fourth technique concerns unpredictability, which in itself is exhausting. The author argues that it is better to have a plan and change it when necessary than to stop planning altogether. A daily routine makes at least part of life understandable and predictable, creating an island of stability in a sea of change. In effect, this is the question "what remains constant in my life today?" — and the answer to it becomes a support that does not depend on external events or anxieties. ### Fifth and sixth questions: am I coping on my own and not letting fear rule? The fifth technique is an honest assessment of your own limits. If a person can no longer cope on their own — cannot sleep, cannot work or concentrate, is constantly living in anticipation of the next danger, panic attacks have started — the author plainly advises not to wait for it to "pass on its own" but to turn to specialists. The sixth, closing, question returns to the marathon metaphor: "do not let fear rule over you, this is a marathon, and we need its strength." That is, the task is not to score a one-off victory over anxiety, but to distribute your resources so that you can cover the distance of uncertainty while preserving your health and will. ## 🔍 Fact-Check Verification - [When fear does not go away: how to turn it into your accomplice](https://wave.rbc.ua/ukr/wellness/koli-strah-minae-k-peretvoriti-yogo-svogo-1788517217.html) - Первичный источник — авторская колонка коуча Ольги Грицик для Wave RBC.UA. Все шесть приёмов, цитата Владимира Ермоленко и рекомендация обращаться к специалистам взяты напрямую из текста. Оговорка: материал носит характер мнения/психологической колонки, а ситуативные детали о непрерывных тревогах отражают момент публикации, поэтому фактическая обстановка на 4 сентября 2026 г. не гарантирована. ## ❓ FAQ ### Q: How many questions does coach Olga Grytsyk offer and what is their purpose? **A:** The author offers six self-check questions whose purpose is to help you not get stuck in anxiety, distinguish real risks from imagined scenarios, and conserve your strength while uncertainty persists. ### Q: What to do if anxiety returns without any new events? **A:** Following the author's advice, you should ask yourself whether any new data has appeared. If not — then the anxiety has simply been "put on the next round," and it should not be re-chewed, so as not to exhaust yourself with rumination. ### Q: When is it worth turning to specialists? **A:** The author recommends not waiting for it to pass on its own if a person cannot sleep, cannot work or concentrate, is constantly living in anticipation of danger, or has started experiencing panic attacks.