Tips to control Anxiety

Living with anxiety can be very difficult, it is important that you take action so that you do not allow yourself to live with the symptoms and effects for years come, to do so you need to make some simple but smart decisions and fully commit to a long term treatment plan, in addition to the following ten helpful stratagems.

Control Your Breathing

Severe anxiety symptoms are often linked to poor breathing habits. Many men and women with anxiety suffer from poor breathing habits that contribute to anxiety and many of the most upsetting symptoms. Controlling your breathing can be a very effective solution – and it’s not what you think. Even if you feel you can’t take a deep breath, you actually need to slow down and reduce your breathing, not speed it up or try to take deeper breaths. Take more controlled, slower, shallower breaths, using the following technique:

• Breathe in slowly and gently through your nose for about 5 to 7 seconds.
• Hold for about 3 or 5 seconds, remaining comfortable.
• Exhale slowly and gently through pursed lips like you’re whistling for about 7 to 9 seconds whilst at the same time visualising you whole body relaxing.

Repeat this exercise ten to twenty times or as you feel necessary. This method of breathing will ensure that you’re not hyperventilating which is a common problem associated with anxiety (panic attacks), and will enable you to regain the Co2 stability in your body that creates many of the worst anxiety symptoms

Talk to Someone Friendly

Distraction is a very effective anxiety reduction technique, since your mind can be your own worst enemy when you have severe anxiety symptoms, this simple and very effective technique is to talk to someone you like and trust, which has been shown to work particularly well on the phone. Be open about your anxiety and how you feel – tell them you feel anxious and explain what you’re feeling. Talking to nice people keeps your mind off of your symptoms, and the supportive nature of friends and family gives you that added boost of confidence. If you’re suffering from a panic attack, it also helps you feel more confident that if something was wrong, you would have someone that can be with you.

Try Some Aerobic Activity

During periods of anxiety your body is filled with adrenaline. Putting that adrenaline towards aerobic activity can be a great way to improve your mood and control the unwanted effects of anxiety in numerous beneficial ways thus empowering you to control your anxiety symptoms:

• Exercise burns away stress hormones that create anxiety symptoms.
• Exercise tires your muscles, reducing excess energy and tension.
• Exercise releases endorphins which improve overall mood.
• Exercise forces healthier breathing.
• Exercise is a healthy distraction.

Aerobic activity, like light jogging or even fast walking, can be extremely effective at reducing the severity of your anxiety symptoms, as well as anxiety itself.

Find What Relaxes You

There are already things in your life that always have and clearly will relax you, seek out these ways, actively use them rather than trying to fight with anxiety full on. Do the activities as soon as possible. For example, if you find that a warm bath is relaxing, don’twait until a perceived “bath time” to take the bath, go ahead and do it now, light some candles, add a few nice scents, and enjoy the whole experience. Whether it’s a bath, a shower, skipping stones at a park, getting a massage – if it works, do it right away, rather than let yourself become overwhelmed by anxiety.

Learn How to Trick Your Anxious Thinking

Anxiety doesn’t come out of the blue. When you have anxiety attacks, it’s often because your mind has a tendency to spiral into negative thoughts – often without your control. Sometimes you can control this anxiety by keeping these thoughts at bay, and learning to dismiss triggers that cause you anxiety. For many, this is easier said than done. But there are many different strategies you can try that may be effective. These include:

• A Question Checklist– When you feel severe anxiety, have a checklist on hand of questions to ask yourself about that anxiety experience. The longer the checklist, the more you’ll find that your thoughts become more realistic. Questions that you can use include:
  • Is there a reason to believe something is wrong?
  • What evidence is there that something is wrong?
  • Is there a chance I’m blowing this out of proportion?

• Affirmations– Affirmations are not for everyone, but those that do use them find them to be very beneficial. Affirmations are things that you say to yourself to make yourself feel better. These include:
  • I’m okay. This is just anxiety and I will get over it.
  • I have a great life and I’m looking forward to tomorrow.
  • My anxiety won’t control me.

• Getting Used to Physical Symptoms– Many of the thoughts that affect anxiety are not thoughts as such, but reactions to physical experiences. This is especially true if you experience panic attacks, where a physical sensation can trigger severe anxiety and panic. By getting used to the symptoms when you’re not experiencing anxiety, your mind stops associating them with your panic attacks. Examples include:
  • Dizziness – If feeling dizzy causes a panic attack, spin around in a chair and let yourself feel more dizzy.
  • Rapid Heartbeat – If a rapid heartbeat causes panic attacks, run in place as fast as you can until your heartbeat speeds up.

The latter is referred to as “exposure therapy” and there are countless ways to create exercises that will habituate you to your panic attack triggers.

Listen to Good Mood Music

1. Every little thing matters. That’s why even if it sounds like it won’t make a tremendous difference, listening to your favourite music can have a powerful effect on your mood and ability to reduce anxiety. However, the key is to not just choose songs you like, but to make sure you’re listening to music that represents the way you want to feel – Happy or relaxing music, and not just any music. The reality is that music does affect emotions, while many people find it soothing to listen to angry music when you’re angry or sad music when you’re sad; the truth is that this type of music will only help you get in touch with those negative emotions. Result being they won’t help you feel better. When you’re trying to stop anxiety listen to music that will help you feel the way you want to feel.                                                         Let it All Out

Anxiety is interesting, because it tends to get worse when you try to fight it. It’s not clear why that occurs, but most likely the stress that your body goes through in order to control the stress of anxiety only makes it worse, as does the effort it takes to try to not feel your natural feelings. So rather than have a mind to stop your anxiety, a curious coping strategy is to go the opposite way to embracing it. When you’re feeling anxious, find a place that you can be alone and let it all come out… Yell at mirrors. Scream. Punch pillows. In a way, make fun of the things you wish you can do. Have a bit of fun with it, but also let out all of your emotions. Throw stuffed animals. Flail your arms and jump around. Let yourself feel like you’re letting out all of your emotions, and then some, to the point where you feel a bit silly, and then do it some more… This lets you embrace theanxiety and not try to fight it, while also giving you an opportunity to hold it back. It’s best to make sure no one is around, and don’t break anything important to you, but as long as what you’re doing is safe it can help you feel quite relaxed.

Make Love

“When I get that feeling, I want… sexual healing.” It’s not a myth. Sexual intercourse and intimate contact can be incredibly calming. It is a distracting physical activity that releases endorphins and helps you feel more relaxed and relieving much of the built up tension. If you have someone special in your life that understands that you’re suffering from anxiety and is willing to share in some lovemaking in order to help you experience some relief from that anxiety, the two of you should come to some type of understanding that allows you to release some sexual energy, and possibly improve your relationship in the process.

Living in Today

Simply learning to live for today can impact your anxiety. One of the most important things that psychologists and counsellors teach those with anxiety is: “Okay, you’re anxious. So what?” Those with anxiety often start to focus too much on how they feel and their worries about the future. Each day becomes trying to live with anxiety instead of trying to live in general. Learning to embrace the idea that you have anxiety and trying to live a great and exciting life anyway is important. And what’s interesting is that if you can learn to finally have that mind-set – to let yourself experience the fear and try to live the life anyway – you will find that your anxiety tends to dissipate with it. It’s not a cure, but it is heading in the right direction..

Hypnotherapy

Whilst I hope this article will go some way to help you or people you know with coping strategies when faced with the symptoms of anxiety, Hypnotherapy is regarded as an effective way to treat the root causes of this debilitating condition. Hypnotherapy is a safe and effective method for treatment of anxiety, no drugs or placebo medication, completely non-intrusive, puts you in control and helps you to understand yourself in a much deeper way, thus giving you the power and ability to remove anxiety from your life. As a Hypnotherapist I have successfully helped many people control and remedy both acute and longer term anxiety conditions. for more information about this treatment option for you or someone you know please contact me to arrange a free, confidential initial consultation…  Call Ian on 01202 830247  or email me on [email protected]