Strategies for Managing Anxiety
Life is interesting and challenging. More often than not, a lot about our lives lie outside our control, and this can be a frightening prospect. For instance, a student might study very hard for a test only to get failed by an act of human error on the part of the lecturer. Or a family member with a previously excellent health record might suddenly come down with a serious illness.
This reality is one that can trigger anxiety in people. It is a fact that as humans, we crave predictability. We want to know what will happen and how it will happen.
But this is not always possible, and this leads to stressful situations. Our bodies react to the stress from these situations through anxiety. How this works is that the brain causes the body to go into the fight or flight response to be able to deal properly with stressful situation.
For matters that are easily resolved, this response is perfect because the body quickly returns to a state of balance. But if the stressful situation is one that continues, the response of the body to it can become chronic and lead to anxiety disorders.
What is the best way for managing anxiety?
Managing anxiety has to be done with carefully followed strategies. These strategies are;
- Identify and challenge faulty thoughts
- Focus on what you can control
- Learn to breathe
- Identify and challenge faulty thoughts
A tendency to suffer from anxiety often has a foundation in faulty thoughts and belief systems.
For instance, say you constantly think you aren’t suitable for your dream job. Chances are that if you ever get an interview for your dream job, you’d suffer from a lot of anxiety and probably a mild panic attack.
This will most likely lead to a panicky performance at the interview, and you’d nit-pick your performance in your head over and over. And on and on. This spins you into a chain of anxiety that will be difficult to break from.
A common belief system that fuels anxiety is the all-or-nothing belief system. An example of this is if you immediately assume that once something doesn’t turn out as expected, it’s going to be a bad situation.
Thinking like this causes severe distortions to your thinking and how you perceive the world. Only a conscious effort to extricate yourself from these disruptive thought patterns would help you get better and manage your anxiety better.
The conscious effort should be one that will be directed towards becoming more objective and conscious of the existence of other possibilities.
For instance, instead of nit-picking all that you think went wrong with the interview for your dream job, try to focus on the parts that went well. You could also focus on preparing yourself better for the next job interview.
- Focus on what you can control
Focusing on what you can’t control leads to a deep feeling of helplessness. This increases your chances of suffering from anxiety.
For instance, you’re trying to pay for a program you need so much, but then there are rumours about the coach increasing the price by 20%. You have two choices here;
- You can either go ballistic and rant about how people on top are making it difficult for others to climb the ladder of success, OR
- You can focus on getting the money needed to pay the program, plus the rumoured 20% increase.
Picking the second option means you will be able to focus on what you can control, which is how fast you’re able to make the money you need.
Focusing your energies on things you can control is easier said than done, but it helps you feel a lot less helpless and more in control.
- Practice Breathing Exercises
Breathing exercises are one of the fastest ways you can use to regulate your emotions of anxiety. Gaining more control over your breathing helps you gain more control over your emotions. It’s a bit like pouring cold water on a blazing fire.
One of the best techniques for this is diaphragmatic breathing. It is also called abdominal breathing, and with it, you can get almost instantaneous relief from anxiety.
A popular method to this is to breathe in deeply and hold it for three seconds, then breathe out slowly and deliberately. Repeat the process as much as you need to, and you should get calmed down quickly.
Scorpion Rick Bottomline
There are a lot of things that lie outside our control as humans. Worrying about them will only lead to more stress. This is because even with things in our control, stress comes with the territory.
So, when dealing with anxiety, you must learn how to know your triggers and deal with them. This is very important in self-care for anxiety.
You should also learn to live in the moment more. It would help you become more carefree and reduce the need for control that we have as humans.
