Anxiety is a general feeling of unease, fear or nervousness. It can affect the way we see things and look at things. It can have a real physical effect on us such as a tight chest or a feeling of nausea or it can affect the way we think about our everyday lives. We can link anxiety to specific phobias or even panic attacks but knowing that that this can be helped successfully with therapy means you do not have to suffer on your own.
Here are a few ways in which you can try to manage your anxiety:
Challenge your thoughts:
Have you ever texted or messaged someone and wondered why they haven’t texted or messaged back? If you are feeling anxious you can end up feeling a bit unbalanced and assume all sorts of negative thoughts such as, “have I upset them?” or “Has something happened to them?” or “why don’t they want to talk to me?”
How about challenging those questions before you fuel your anxiety even more? Challenge yourself by asking yourself is this fact or opinion? If there is no evidence for this you could be fuelling your anxiousness for no reason at all.
Some people say they worry about what others think of them and they anticipate the worst case scenario. This means you may avoid situations that entail meeting other people whether it be socially or at work and corporate events or you may fail to be assertive and stand up for yourself in certain situations because you fear not being liked or respected.
The truth is it is actually non of your business what other people think of you. The truth is if you are assertive and speak up when you need to, you can actually gain the respect of others as they will be aware of your healthy boundaries. This takes great courage but rather than creating your worst case scenario in your mind, how about putting your best foot forward and challenging yourself? Think about your own self worth.
The truth is whether it is a phobia of getting in your car and driving on the motorway, or anticipating the worst case scenario in any situation facing your fears and doing it anyway repeatedly can eventually help you to overcome the anxiety.
Of course let us not forget the breath. When you are anxious it stimulates the fight or flight response which is a natural way for us to protect ourselves from potentially dangerous situations but taking a few deep breaths and really focusing on the breath can help to calm our mind and our body. You can do some box breathing exercises such as breath in for the count of five, hold it for five and then breath out on a count of five. This will help to calm down that fight and flight response and calm the mind.
If any of the above resonates with you and you think you would benefit from either hypnotherapy or counselling for anxiety then please feel free to get in touch through my contact page.