How to Cope With Anxiety
Article by John Scott
When you are dealing with anxiety, the last thing you can think of doing is relaxing. Your mind is telling you that you need to relax, but your fears and your worries and the issue that is stressing you out seems to overwhelming to relax. The fact is that when it comes to anxiety, it almost always starts in our heads first, and it always begins with intrusive or stressful thoughts. Anxiety is not caused by the events or stressful things that happen to us, it is caused by the thought processes we develop when we are exposed to this stress. That being said, if you are struggling with anxiety, take comfort in the fact that you can manage it very effectively if you put your mind to it. Read here to see some powerful coping mechanisms for anxiety, and how treatment and dealing with it is much easier than you may think.
Because the root of anxiety is the process of thoughts we have running in our head, we know that we can take care of anxiety and cope with it better by controlling those thought processes. But we live in a fast paced world where everything is hurry hurry hurry, and stopping to slow down for a minute is harder than we think. When it comes to anxiety however, the sooner you slow down, the sooner you will find those anxiety symptoms begin to ease up. This is a coping means that will take some practice, but once you get it down, dealing with anxiety will be much easier.
When you are exposed to a stressful experience or situation, and you begin to feel those first waves of anxiety and panic, take a big breath and remind yourself your worries are bigger than this problem. Once you believe that, then you know you can get rid of those worries and deal with this problem very easily without panic. This is a tool called mindfulness, and it prevents us from over-reacting and experiencing outbursts or developing anxiety or panic attacks. If for example, you just got an email from your boss for a deadline that has been pushed back an hour, take a big breath and remember that exploding will make this problem worse. Taking that big breath is important, as it will tell your brain that your body is trying to calm down. Now give yourself five minutes to solve this problem, either by calmly letting your boss know that deadline is not possible, or rescheduling your work day accordingly.
At the end of the day, mindfulness is a powerful technique used to effectively cope with anxiety. This is a tool that will take some practice but will be very rewarding with time. Other ways that you can cope with anxiety is to plan a period of time just for you in the day, to do with whatever you please with no interruptions allowed. If stressful events crop up during the day, you can dissuade panic from setting in by reminding yourself your relaxation time and reward will be well enjoyed. If you are finding that even simple changes to your lifestyle are not enough to keep anxiety at bay, you may want to consider
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