Got worries? Got problems?
Many people think there is something wrong with them if they admit to having problems? It’s OK, you are not alone and you are perfectly normal. The truth is, there is something wrong with you if you don’t have any problems. It means you are not living much of a life.
It’s only when your worries become constant, never-ending and severe that you’ve got a more serious condition known as anxiety. Let’s face it, life’s daily grind can eat away at us a little bit at a time. The cumulative effect of stress can quickly erode your ability to cope with even the simplest things.
With the pace today’s world ever-increasing you need a good set of skills and strategies in place. The following suggestions should only be considered if you feel your anxiety is either very mild and/or it’s just starting. For more serious cases, you should seek professional help – the sooner, the better.
When these tactics don’t work, your anxiety levels may get substantially worse as you plummet into desperation and depression. Get help! Having given you sufficient warning, you might find some temporary relief from your mild anxiety by implementing any or all of these strategies.
Top 10 Easy Ways to Leave Your Anxiety
Make Better Choices
In school, my seven year old daughter is drilled about choices and consequences. Poor choices lead to bad consequences; good choices lead to better consequences. I can think of no better advice to give an anxiety sufferer than to examine your choices. Are the people in your life supportive, encouraging and uplifting? What about your schedule? Is it manageable or do you have to put on your super-hero mask and cape in order to fight through your day? Do you really HAVE to hang with people who gossip, cuss and otherwise bring you down? Do you really HAVE to do those million-and-one things all by yourself? The answers to both questions of course is “NO!” Make better choices and enjoy the better consequences with less – or even NO anxiety!
Check Your Breathing; Check Your Pulse
For many people, being tied down to a desk or other non-physical job leaves them totally out of shape and unprepared to handle stress when it comes around. If your lifestyle is sedentary, it is most important that you practice some form of deep breathing periodically throughout the day. It’s not necessary to get down to a gym for a full-blown workout, although a bit of exercise wouldn’t hurt. Still, the bare minimum should be to take 10-20 very deep breaths every hour or so. You’ll gain a greater ability to cope when you train yourself to stop for a minute to take some deep breaths.
You Are What You Eat
You know all the sayings, “Garbage in; garbage out” holds true to so many things; your thinking for one – and diet is another huge area. Again, it all comes down to making better choices as mentioned before. When it comes to the food you choose to put into your body, go for raw, natural and organic as much as possible. By doing so, you won’t have to worry about getting enough of the right things. And you certainly won’t need to bother with questionable supplements which promise all kinds of benefits but usually only end up benefiting the manufacturer and sellers.
Good Night!
When you’re tired, grouchy and irritable, these are the perfect conditions for anxiety to take root and grow. Along with all the other techniques listed here, getting sufficient quality rest and sleep is vital to reducing and eliminating anxiety.
What’s It All About, Anxiety?
We’re all different in that we have our own combination of people and things that we cope well with and others that leave us totally exasperated. What bugs the heck out of me might not phase you at all. Knowing all your triggers and buttons as well as the people and things that push them and set them off is the first step in dealing with them. Once you have a handle on the who and what, you can then do something about them.
Talk It Out/ Write It Out
Having close relationships with family and friends is vital to your stability and well-being. However, there are times when you may need trained professional help to ferret out the root cause of a more serious, persistent case of anxiety. Mental health issues are very complex and professional counselors put in years of study and practice to gain the knowledge and expertise to help. It’s NOT a sign of weakness to need professional help. It’s the BEST thing you can do for yourself, your family and friends.
You’ve Got to Move It
If you have the time and are so inclined, getting some physical activity into your daily life provides huge benefits. Exercise is known to be a great stress buster as a certain level of exertion takes the ‘edge’ off your daily grind. If your job is already physically demanding, then you’ll need to look at the relaxation skills such as meditation and yoga. Even just getting out for a walk, either alone or with a close family member, friend or pet, will help ease your mind and make you less anxious.
Let Go and Have Fun!
One of the funniest movies I ever watched is, “‘What About Bob?” with Bill Murray and Richard Dreyfuss. Bob is extremely anxious about everything and has worn out several psychiatrists before ending up with Dr. Leo Marvin who encourages Bob to take risks in, ‘Baby Steps’. While I hesitate to use this comedy example as it might seem to minimize a very serious condition, the fact remains that sometimes it IS important to let yourself go, to step out and take some risks in life. Sometimes the only way to deal with fear, worry and anxiety is to go THROUGH it. You know, feel the fear and do it anyway!
Escape
Do you have a hobby? Do you have an enjoyable passion or passtime where you can escape when the world gets a bit rough? It should be noted that the escape should be a healthy activity, done in healthy proportions. For example, we’re not talking about drinking, drugs, gambling and all the other vices that pull a person down. And even if you’re building model train sets, you don’t want to use your temporary escape as an avoidance maneuver to get out of bigger problems. However, your life should include enough interesting diversions where you can easily go when you need a short break.
Picture This
Not many people can pack up and take off whenever they want… at least not in real life. But the mind is an incredible thing. With practice, you can create scenarios accompanied by emotions that can give you great pleasure. Again, moderation is the key here. Unfortunately, many people can misuse visualization by creating ‘fantasies’ which only make them feel worse when they compare them to where they actually are. Use visualization more as a tool to stimulate positive ideas and possibilities.
Remember, these suggestions work best with only the mildest cases of anxiety. Prolonged and severe anxiety requires professional attention. There is help for your anxiety. You only need to ask!