Many people often avoid and overlook their anxious emotions and behavior by thinking ignoring them will be like putting a full stop to that chapter, which is a big lie.
“We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.” — Mother Teresa
The same goes for anxiety. We think it to be an end, but it leads to a doomed future. It’s because ignoring anxious emotions or situations for a long time can affect lastly and dangerously in your life.
You might think that you’ll not face that thing or situation that creates anxiety in your mind, but it’ll only increase your fear of them. And gradually, you may start fearing the things that used to be your favorite.
Additionally, anxiety is one of the main reasons for panic attacks, phobia, irritation, and so on.
I also faced this type of anxiety in my university. I used to get anxious thinking about my classmates' thoughts and what impression I build with my supervisor and other teachers.
In short, anxiety is a mental disorder that needs to be treated, and the good news is if started early, you can easily overcome anxiety, thus securing your future.
However, if done correctly, the below 5 strategies might help you deal with your anxiety problem.
1. Identify and Note Them
Identifying the reasons for anxiety is the first step to dealing with it. You can’t overcome anxiety unless you’re aware of why and when you’re anxious.
You can, for instance, start writing them down. Whenever you notice some strange behaviors of yours that point towards anxiety symptoms, note them.
Recording the anxious behaviors provides you an idea of how to cope with them because you can analyze them properly then.
Additionally, be honest with yourself. Don’t ignore your emotions. Ignoring them will make you weak and create negative thoughts in your mind, which can cause difficulties in identifying the triggers. Once you embrace each of your emotions, you’ll find many ways to overcome them — surely.
2. Face Your Anxious Situations
Quite often, we ignore or run from the situations that make us anxious.
The truth, however, is that the more you’ll ignore or try to run, the scarier your anxiety will be.
That’s why once you’ve got the list of your anxious behaviors and the reasons behind them, make yourself ready to face them.
Whenever you’ll face them, sooner or later, they’ll start fading away. It’s because you’ll not be as scared as before, thus they’ll come under your control.
If you, for example, feel anxious talking with others or coming in front of people, then get yourself surrounded by more people and appear more in public. It’ll convince you that it’s nothing but your anxiety.
The former might throw your anxiety away, but the latter will gain you a lot of things and lessons.
3. Practice Mindfulness
We often become so busy getting stuff done that we forget to be mindful, which gives anxiety an excellent boost.
Being mindful means redirecting all your concentration to the present moment — observing every sensation that you’re experiencing now.
However, mindfulness works as an amazing tool to kick anxiety out. In a study, neuroscientist Sarah Lazar stated the same. She said that —
“Mindfulness can enhance our ability to remember this new, less-fearful reaction, and break the anxiety habit.”
Additionally, mindfulness interrupts the anxious moment and replaces the anxiety-producing thoughts with new and positive ones.
It’s not abnormal for a phone to get hung after several hours of use. So our life. And mindfulness recharges it by pausing our minds and giving us a tour of the present moment.
That’s why, whenever you feel anxiety, sit down, pause, and try to understand what’s happening with you right now, what’s provoking you to be anxious. By this, you can track that anxious moment.
4. Breath
Shallow breath plays a vital role in increasing anxiety. But it becomes rapid during an anxious moment.
Shallow breaths directly come from the chest. It increases the heartbeat by troubling the body's oxygen and carbon dioxide levels, resulting in stress, anxiety, and panic attacks.
However, shallow breath’s normal when you’re anxious, but deep breath can solve the issue, and luckily it’s easy to do.
I simply engage myself with deep breaths and say to myself — relax, take it easy. It makes me feel good during an anxious moment.
The deep breath regulates blood flow, heartbeat, and digestion. It, additionally, prevents the fight-or-flight response — which produces stress, anxiety, and panic.
Whenever you notice any anxiety symptoms arising, stop and concentrate on your breathing.
Take breaths deeply, but slowly. It’s because multiple deep breaths at once led to hyperventilation that reduces the amount of oxygen-rich blood.
Moreover, ensure that you exhale longer than you inhale because inhaling only controls the fight-or-flight response while exhaling relax and calm your body.
5. Invite Positive Thoughts
Your thoughts have a great impact on your body and in the case of anxiety, that’s particularly true.
When you’re anxious, your mind thinks too many negative things too quickly that can cause a panic attack. However, negative thoughts only increase your fear.
Positive thoughts, on the other hand, do the opposite. Positive thoughts help to reduce stress, fear, depression, and many other things. A positive thinker or an optimist person never takes failure for a doomed future. Instead, he takes it as a lesson and a new opportunity to start again.
Whenever you feel anxiety, stop doing everything and relax your mind. You can, for instance, go out for a walk to divert your mind from the thing that’s disturbing you.
And if negative words come to your mind, then try to replace positive thoughts with negative thoughts. Even though it’s hard but not impossible.
However, when you’ll focus on the positive thoughts, you’ll be aware of how blessed and fortunate you are.
Final Thoughts
A quick recap —
- Identify your anxious emotions
- Face them
- Practice mindfulness
- Take deep breaths
- Focus on positive thoughts
These things are simple and easy to execute but can affect incredibly on your anxious behavior.
However, being anxious occasionally is common, but becoming a victim of frequent anxious emotions is not okay. If you’re becoming one, then you shouldn’t delay overcoming it.
Always remember, a fresh mindset is the main source of upcoming expectations and great results.
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