Anxiety can be anything from a mild feeling of concern about something in your life to a crippling inability to do anything at all. If your anxieties are starting to control your life and keep you from achieving your dreams, it may be time to see professional help. Keep reading to learn more about beating back anxiety.
In the throes of an anxiety attack, practice diaphramatic breathing to help you calm down. Place one hand on your stomach and inhale deeply, pushing your hand outward. Hold that breath for several seconds, and exhale slowly. This keeps you from hyperventilating and gives you something besides your panic to focus on.
To help manage your anxiety, consider meeting with a therapist who specializes in cognitive behavioral therapy. This kind of therapy can help you attack specific fears or worries by identifying and changing distorted patterns in your thinking. By looking at the full picture of how your worries affect you, you can hopefully decrease your overall anxiety when those thinking patterns are eliminated.
Learn how to have control over your feelings and do not let them get the best of you. If you allow your feelings to take over in everyday situations it will only lead to more anxiety. Take a few deep breaths and think things through before letting things get out of control.
Keep tabs on or eliminate your consumption of caffeine, nicotine and other stimulants. These substances increase your heart rate and can make you feel more jittery and anxious than you already do. If you cannot make it through the day without several cups of java, look at the reasons why and find ways to make your day less hectic.
If anxiety has taken over your life, get professional help. Nobody should have to suffer silently through the fear, or be forced to live a limited life due to anxiety. There is help available, so talk to a professional, or look online for a forum where you can discuss common issues with others. Doing nothing is condemning yourself to a miserable existence.
Try not to watch the news often. Many times, the news is filled with all kinds of negative stories, about occurrences in your town, and around the world. When dealing with anxiety, you do not need to feed the anxiety anymore negative issues to dwell on. Turn off the TV, pick up a lighthearted book to read instead.
Upon first waking, take a few moments to say affirmations about the positive aspects that you want to experience in your life that day. Speak aloud, give voice to how you envision your day progressing and the things that you want to accomplish. Then, do everything you can to ensure your day goes how you intend it to.
Staying active with exercise of some kind will help to burn off energy that your body would put to use to feed your anxiety. Get out for a walk, take a swim or take up aerobics or yoga for positive physical activity. Anything that will feel good as you do it and burn energy is going to help alleviate your anxiety.
When you start feeling anxious in public, find ways to distract yourself. When in line at the store, start looking at the items hanging near you or the products in your basket. Observe the ceiling, count the number of checkstands, and do anything else you can to preoccupy your mind and keep it from dwelling on anxious thoughts.
Learning to control your thoughts is essential when you are dealing with anxiety. Negative thoughts have a lot to do with why people experience this affliction. If you are able to put these negative thoughts out of your head, then you will be able to be free of it.
Just sitting around your house and thinking about your anxiety will not get rid of it. The best thing to do is keep your body and mind busy. Find something you enjoy, which is keep your mind busy, and decrease anxiety.
Breathing techniques are one of the best ways that you can reduce all physical stress that causes anxiety as the day wears on. Take long, deep breaths during the day to let your body acquire the oxygen that it needs to function properly. Engaging in this breathing pattern helps stabilize mood and reduces tension.
Write down a detailed list of the events and situations that produce stressful feelings. Separate the things you can control from the the things you cannot. Learn to accept the triggers you can’t avoid and to avoid the ones you can.
Always keep your promises to yourself, as well as, to others. Anxiety can come on from feelings of inadequacy because you make promises to yourself or others that you fear you cannot live up to. If you promise yourself a vacation, for instance, do not let fear and doubt about going, cause you to break another promise to yourself. This will only lead to more anxiety.
When there is too much anxiety in your life, keep yourself distracted. Surround yourself with positive people and those who make you laugh. This will force you to focus on the positive, instead of the negative, and it might just make those anxiety problems go away for awhile.
Keep a log or a journal to try to figure out what your triggers are. Once you have the triggers mapped out, you will have a better idea of what you can do to reduce the anxiety that you feel in the different situations. Each situation may require a different management technique.
Try creating your own calming herbal tea tonic to help you with anxiety. There are many calming herbs out there that can help you deal with anxiety. Do your research and ask your doctor before combining any of them. You are bound to find one or two that can help you!
As you have seen, anxiety can take many different forms and have many different effects on your life. No matter what sort of anxiety you have, you should start taking steps to get the upper hand on anxiety. By making use of the advice you have read in this article, you can rid yourself of anxiety.