Anxiety? Beat it!

       

We all suffer anxiety at some stage in our lives. Some stress and anxiety is actually good and improves our performance, but when the stress levels reach the anxiety or panic attack level, we can feel overwhelmed and worried that we might not be able to manage. There are things that we can do to help resolve a tense situation and create a calmer attitude. Here are some tools that can help us learn how to beat anxiety:

Take Some Deep Breaths

When stressed out, we’re more likely to take shallow breaths. This is because our chests tighten up with shoulder and muscular tension, which alters our breathing. We might feel fatigued, unable to concentrate, and tense. Instead of letting stress take over, we can try to breathe deeply to calm ourselves.

Stop for a Few Minutes

When our To-Do List is making us sweat, we often tend to push on through anyway. As we continue with our responsibilities, our body creates more stress hormones, making us prone to react more aggressively to additional stress. Think about it. When we’re upset about something and then someone comes up to us with more bad news, we feel even worse. We can stop the cycle of stress by sitting back and meditating for a few moments.

Write It Down

We often tend to overstate the anxiety we feel and think that we have much more to worry about than we actually do. If we cannot concentrate because we are anxious, it can help to write down everything we are fretting about.

When we write down all of our tasks or the things that are on our mind, and see our responsibilities in front of us, we will get a clearer idea of how we can tackle them –often in a less stressful way. Visualize if we really can’t manage everything, we can stop for a minute and visualize the way we wish things were. It will help us think more positively. People who think they’re in a warm place, and those who actually are in a warm place have the same brain activity. The brain can’t distinguish between what it senses and what it is “told” by the thinker. If we are feeling overwhelmed, try “telling” the brain that it is calm and peaceful.

Walk Away Or Use Distractions

When we are feeling anxious about a project, we can walk away from our desk for five minutes, or talk to someone else in our office. This distracts us from our concerns and helps us focus on something more calming. Once the body begins to feel calm again, we can return to whatever we were working on.

Take Control with Planning

Too often, we fail to organize and plan.  When we organize our desk, work area, study, home life, etc., we can immediately decrease our anxiety levels. When we are under a lot of stress, cleaning up our work area can help us to feel more in control—because we will be.

Talk to Someone

One of the quickest and easiest ways to reduce stress is to talk to a friend or family member. By simply communicating, we can begin to change the way we think about our stress, and how we react to it. Anxiety and panic disorders don’t have to run our life. Anxiety can be avoided and diminished with these simple tips, most of which only take a few minutes, allowing us to get back to the work we need to do or the people we need to talk to. We can be in control of anxiety, instead of letting it control us. Managing the way we deal with anxiety and stress will help us make better decisions and will help us beat it