Anxiety is a condition that can rob us of the present moment and effectively rob us of our happiness in life. Anxiety can play tricks on our minds and make us feel like we’re paralyzed or in immense danger, when in reality we aren’t.
Anxiety is rapidly increasing amongst Australians and with our fast paced society and many social pressures, it is no wonder why our mind’s are racing like the speed of light and causing our bodies to feel anxious.
Today, I will share with you 6 ways you can reduce your anxiety. It is important to note that anxiety isn’t something that disappears right away; it is something that with small changes over time can start to reduce and be managed.
For severe anxiety disorders, therapy, in association with anxiety reducing techniques is ideal. You can follow this link if you would like clarification around the types of anxiety disorders there are https://www.beyondblue.org.au/the-facts/anxiety/types-of-anxiety.
Here are the 6 ways you can reduce your anxiety-
1. Accept that you’re anxious.
Accepting that we are anxious is important to realize that anxiety is just an emotional reaction, a feeling just like any other feeling we have. If we try to deny our anxiety or resist it, this actually make it worse as it can make us think our anxiety is so dangerous we must not face it. Hence, robbing us of the opportunity to calm the anxiety right then and there.
2. Stay in the present moment.
Usually when we are anxious, we fear something of the future. Try to focus your attention on the present moment- the reality of what is now, instead of the fearful thought of the future.
Try looking around the room or your surroundings. Focus very deeply on certain objects, pick something up, feel the texture of it, observe its colour.
3. Breathe.
Another way to stay present is to breathe. Breathing deeply through our diaphragm is a powerful technique to reduce anxiety because it activates the body’s relaxation response. It shifts the body from the fight-or-flight response to the relaxed response. You could simply try breathing in for a count of 5 and out for a count of 5 and repeat several times.
4. Remember you have handled this in the past.
When you are in the midst of feeling anxious it is easy to feel like you are losing a battle and anxiety has you pinned down on the ground with a knife to your heart. You can easily start to lose faith in your strengths and coping abilities.
When this happens, focus on your breath for a few seconds to help bring you back to the present and then try to think of a difficult time you’ve overcome and focus on how strong you are. Realize that you are strong and capable of working through anything just like this situation as you have in the past.
If it is too hard to think of a situation, try a simple positive affirmation such as; ‘Every breath I inhale calms me and every breath I exhale releases tension’, and ‘I am strong and capable- I have control over my mind’.
5. Be an observer — without judgment.
Many times anxiety can make us think all sorts of bizarre things. For example, if we are about to give a speech in front of our class, we could start to think things like ‘I can’t do this, I’m going to die’.
Start to be aware of these thoughts, realize they are far from reality and perhaps try to replace it with a more realistic thought like ‘yes I might make a little error during my talk, but most people probably won’t notice and I’m sure everyone won’t even remember my speech tomorrow’.
Acknowledging your thoughts and the degree of how unrealistic they are, can start to show us how much our mind is playing tricks on us. Over time, can start to slowly distance ourselves from these thoughts and be skilled in replacing them with more realistic thoughts.
You can also ask yourself these questions while feelings anxious
1. Is this worry likely to happen?
2. How realistic is this worry?
3. How can I handle the worst possible outcome of this worry?
4. In contrast, what’s the positive outcome that come from this situation?
6. Get moving!
Every single person needs to exercise more especially those feeling anxious. Moving and exercising promotes blood flow, improves neurotransmitter production and regulation, releases feel-good brain chemicals and decreases overall levels of tension. Even just 5 minutes of aerobic exercise can begin to stimulate anti-anxiety effects.
It can be as powerful as any medication, and while it's not a permanent cure on its own, you'll experience considerable relief if you exercise every day. I’m not saying you need to join a gym, but find fun physical activities that you love doing, whether it’s playing your favourite sport, walking your dog or dancing!
7. Let it out
When you keep something bottled up, your head can become a boxing ring with constant battling thoughts and harsh swings from your mind’s negative chatter. As mentioned above exercising is great to release tension but sometimes a good old fashioned talk with someone we trust can be very powerful.
Talk to someone close to you about the things you’re feeling. Simply venting to someone who is happy to listen can help you to get a more grounded view on the reality of the situation. You could even hear some good feedback on how to tackle the situation.
Finally, in addition to adopting these 7 steps to reduce our anxiety we should remember that life isn’t as serious as it seems most of the time. Try to focus on the things that interest you or that needed to get done before you were feeling anxious. This trains us to beleive that anxiety doesn’t rule our lives and we can get on with what we we were setting out to do anyway. The less you entertain your anxious thoughts the less they will come and hang around for long periods of time.
With love,
Jacqui Zdravkovski