Living with anxiety can be challenging at best and crippling at worst. It can seep into every aspect of your life and change the way you interact with others. What’s even worse is that there is no quick cure for anxiety. Learning to control your reactions and feelings takes time and effort. But, it can be done and that alone may provide some light at the end of the tunnel for anxiety sufferers.
Today is the day you take back control over your life and show anxiety who is boss. You must not allow your anxiety to control you. You are the one in charge of your body and reactions and shouldn’t ever forget that. So, if you’re ready to start combatting your anxiety right now, here are five tips that will get you started.
Breathe
This might seem obvious – we all breathe all the time anyway. But, there is actually a right and wrong way to breathe and getting it wrong can increase your chances of an anxiety attack. Make sure you sit up straight so you open up your airwaves. Then take a deep breath in through your nose for about 6 seconds. Hold you breath for 3 seconds and then exhale through your mouth for 9 seconds. This whole thing might take longer than your average breath but it will calm you down and prevent hyper-ventilating – a common symptom of anxiety.
Try and Input Logic into Your Thinking
When we have anxiety attacks, we tend to spiral into a negative way of thinking. We believe bad things are happening or about to happen. Maybe we feel like no-one likes us or that we will never achieve anything. Before you let your thinking get out of control and lead to an anxiety attack, try and question your mind. Ask yourself if there is any reason you believe these things. Then see if there is any evidence to back up your reasoning. Doing this may convince your mind that actually everything is fine and help your anxiety subside.
Keep Yourself in the Present
A lot of anxiety is associated with worrying about things you’ve done in the past or panicking about things to come. There is no time but the present. Everything that you have already done is over – there is nothing you can do to go back and change what has happened. The future isn’t even here yet so there is no need to worry about it. All you can do is think about how to make your life better and easier right here and right now. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t think about the future – but you should try not to worry about it. Save that for when it finally comes.
Focus on What is in Front of You
There is a trick that many spiritual healers use to help people with anxiety. It consists of realising what you have in front of you at any given point. Open your eyes and look around. Pick out three things you can see and three sounds you can hear. This helps to calm down a brain that is speeding out of control and to make you feel grounded even just for a minute. Now move three parts of your body and feel the sensation of your brain controlling your body parts. This exercise aims to reconnect your mind to your body and in doing so bring you back to the present and out of your hole of despair.
