Seven surprising ways to manage anxiety

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Anxiety is an uncomfortable emotion that involves intense worry and tension, causing a person to feel uneasy about a particular situation. While anxiety disorder is different in that it’s a mental health condition requiring treatment, experiencing normal anxiety has become more common for people nowadays. This is understandable given the current state of the world, although many other factors can trigger the feeling.

When a person is having an anxiety attack, they could feel faint, dizzy, or distressed, sweat excessively, and experience shortness of breath. Since those can be terrible to go through, it would help for you to look for ways to keep your emotions in check every day. Here are just some of the things you can do to manage anxiety:

  1. Consult A Counselor 

The safest and best way to deal with anxiety is consulting a counselor who can help identify your anxiety triggers, with the process possibly involving past lives regression. In this way, they can find out the root cause of your anxiety and figure out how to stop it from negatively affecting your thoughts.

Some people aren’t entirely comfortable with turning to a counselor as they feel that it’s a sign of defeat. If you happen to be one of them, look at it this way: seeking the help of a professional is a form of victory as you’re taking one step closer to making yourself feel better. Moreover, you can ensure that your secrets are safe because counselors provide maximum confidentiality to each of their clients.

  1. Practice Breathing Exercises 

You can ease anxiety on your own by practicing basic breathing exercises. This should be the first thing you do once you sense that you’re about to have an anxiety attack as it’s a quick remedy that might prevent the situation from worsening. 

You can begin by inhaling and exhaling slowly for longer intervals than usual while keeping your body and shoulders relaxed. Ideally, you should breathe in through your nose and exhale through your mouth, and you need to repeat the process until you feel better. It would be helpful to close your eyes while doing this and focus your full attention on your breathing pattern.

  1. Remove Yourself From The Situation

If you stay in the same room or area where your anxiety attack occurs, doing breathing exercises or trying to calm yourself won’t work as well as it should. For maximum effectiveness, you should remove yourself from the situation by leaving the area and giving yourself room to breathe. If you don’t have access to fresh air, the building’s hallway or bathroom could be enough to detach you from the scenario.

As you exit the room, it might be difficult to take your mind off of what has just happened. While you may not be able to forget about it immediately, heading to and being in a different place should relieve some tension and allow you to gather your thoughts.

  1. Try Yoga 

Once you’re in the middle of an anxiety attack, it might be difficult to calm yourself down, especially with the numerous thoughts going on inside your head. To redirect them, you should consider practicing yoga, which would prompt you to concentrate on your breathing and body positions and not on the anxiety you’re feeling.

When doing yoga, you may play some relaxing music and continue practicing for as long as you need to. Fortunately, you can easily do this at home without the need to go to a gym or attend classes. You can simply follow tutorial videos on the internet and allow the process to heal your mind and soothe your soul.

  1. Listen To Music 

If you find yourself getting overwhelmed with anxiety, you should try listening to music that might be able to help calm your thoughts. While it might not clear your head instantly, the process would help you reach a tranquil state.

One of the most effective ways to be at peace is to listen to soothing music such as classical, jazz, or the blues. However, if those aren’t to your liking, you can always opt for feel-good music that’ll make you want to dance and enjoy the beat. In this way, you can get in a good mood and eventually relieve yourself from anxiety.

  1. Redirect Your Thoughts 

When you’re having an anxiety attack, you might think about negative matters and all the things that could go wrong for the day. While it may be difficult to stop pondering on those if that’s how you usually prepare yourself for what’s to happen, you should attempt to divert your thoughts to something more optimistic.

Stop for a moment and think of the other ways you can face the situation. For example, if you’re anxious about a sudden change of plans, think of it as just another way to spend the day and be able to encounter new experiences that could make you feel better. By redirecting your thoughts, you can work toward having a more positive point of view. If something’s bound to fail, do your best to not worry about what hasn’t happened yet and face the situation head-on once it does occur.

  1. Keep Yourself Busy 

If you frequently experience anxiety attacks, you should consider doing some activities or hobbies that can keep you busy for a while. In this way, you can distract yourself from any negative thoughts, pay attention to something that would make you happy instead of stressed, and ultimately take control of your emotions.

You can do volunteer work during your spare time, establish a small home business, watch a movie before going to bed, or even try to learn new recipes you can then share with your family. If you run out of things to do, you can search for ideas online or ask for recommendations from friends and relatives.

Conclusion

No one wants to have an anxiety attack at any point in their life. Apart from making a person to feel uneasy and think negatively, anxiety could lead to something more serious if you don’t take the necessary actions to alleviate it. Whenever you feel incredibly anxious, you should do what you can to keep yourself calm and relaxed. Even though the process is difficult, it’s always worth giving it a try. And if you’re having trouble managing anxiety on your own, getting help from a professional may just be the best option for you.