In this video and blog post Mark explains:
- What is anxiety?
- How does anxiety work?
- How to overcome anxiety
If we want to know how to overcome anxiety we first need to know what it is.
What Is Anxiety?
How to overcome anxiety. In this post you are going to find out what is anxiety. To put it simply, anxiety is a reaction. A mental and physical reaction that can feel all consuming. It can effect everything from what we think about to the choices we make. Regardless of how powerful anxiety is, the fact is it all started with a thought. Whether it is a thought from something in the past or a thought about something in the future. Or maybe it is a thought that you just cant stop thinking about, and hence anxiety wells up inside. It is that thought that acts like a trigger and causes anxiety to kick in. You may know when it started and what that thought was, or you may be confused to what really is the trigger. But regardless of what started it, the focus is about stopping it. The fear of “What If” is sometimes enough to cause anxiety to fire up.
It can also be triggered by being busy and not having a work life balance. Being always switched on can cause adrenaline and stress hormones like cortisol to be surging around the body and cause you to feel anxious when you possibly weren’t even thinking about being anxious. This is why panic attacks can happen out of the blue. Being constantly on the go, can slowly cause anxiety to rise up. The reason is because your body is wanting rest but you keep going, so in order to keep going the body releases adrenaline. This is normal for certain times and for short periods of time. However when it’s for long periods of time it can trigger the mind to think subconsciously that there is something wrong due to the body and nervous system constantly being activated. The feelings of anxiety can start to simmer in the background.
How Does Anxiety Work?
As I mentioned above anxiety starts with a thought, that thought is a trigger. When you react to that thought your thoughts begin to assess it and test it. In seconds your mind decides whether this thought is a friend or enemy. It decides how to react to this thought. Should I let it go, enjoy it, reject it, or fear it. If your mind decides to fear the thought it can generate a fearful reaction in your thoughts which can begin to spiral our of control. Constant thinking can cause ruminating and constant obsessing over that thought. Even with lots of things to do can cause anxiety by merely being overwhelmed with thoughts of things to get done on a daily basis. Catastrophe thinking and picturing the worst outcome in your mind all plays its part. This brings you to a place of high anxiety. High anxiety is when your whole being is effected with anxiety on a regular basis that is effecting our quality of life.
Your body is in sync with your thoughts and so it begins to react to the thoughts because the mind is thinking there is something to fear, or a possible threat. However, this threat is a perceived threat and not actually real or tangible. But the mind doesn’t know the difference so it sends alarm bells to your body to get ready to protect itself. This is how anxiety manifests itself and consumes your thoughts, emotions, and physiology. The video above will explain this a lot more.
How To Overcome Anxiety 8 tips:
Tip One: Have Hope
You may not have answers, maybe you are in a high anxiety state right now. But the first thing to hold fast to is to have hope that this will pass and you will be ok. I’ve worked with hundreds of people whom have learnt how to overcome anxiety and it is possible to control it and own it. It just takes time and work and it will be challenging.
Tip Two: Talk to Somebody
Talk to somebody who wont judge you, and somebody you can trust. Someone you know will be there for you if you need to get support. Talk to a doctor, a therapist, or contact me and I’d be glad to help. Get talking and this helps immensely because you are confronting it. Talking helps you confront it and is a start to recovery from anxiety.
Tip Three: Know Your Triggers
Discover what are the things that trigger your anxiety. Is it being busy? Is it lack of rest? Or is it a series of thoughts? Is it a fear or trauma you need to overcome? Find out what triggers your anxiety and deal with it bit by bit. Understanding your weak spots helps for the future.
Tip Four: Get Balance
Having a rested mind and body is so important. Being stressed will add to the anxiety even if it is not causing it. Get rest and relaxation. Also make time for doing the things that stimulates your mind and puts a smile on your face. Sometimes people think alcohol or drugs may help, but this is an error as they can act like a depressant and stimulant. It may appear initially they help, but these actually make anxiety a lot worse and are not a solution. Get balance with things that are enjoyable and not counterproductive. Pursue a hobby, read, listen to music, go for a walk, train in the gym, just get your mind busy doing what you like and helps you de stress.
Tip Five: Let thoughts float by
When thoughts of fear and anxiety start, don’t fight them. Instead see them as if they are like a boat passing you by and let them float by. Fighting them just causes more stress as you are now entertaining the thought. It’s difficult when your whole body feels anxiety, so it takes time and it’s not easy. Thoughts will come and go and we don’t always decide when or what we think about, our mind is like a computer with stuff always running in the background. It’s not about trying to ignore the thoughts, it’s about learning not to react when they show up.
Tip Six: Your Thoughts Are Not You
Anxious thoughts are just like annoying “pop ups” when you are trying read something on a website. They happen by themselves when you aren’t expecting them and get in the way. It is just like anxious thoughts will trigger and our body follows. One tip is to know that anxiety and the thoughts that happen are not a reflection of your beliefs directly. They are usually contrary to our beliefs or what we want in life. They come and present an image or thought of something we don’t want to think about. So in short, just because you thought it doesn’t mean they are your opinions, and certainly doesn’t mean there is truth to the thoughts.
Tip Seven: Help Others
The best distraction I have found from clients feedback is when they help others their anxiety lessons and even disappears for that time. The reason is when we put our focus on others it takes the attention off us and distracts our thoughts. This in turn helps our anxiety levels to lower.
Tip Eight: Learn To Calm Yourself
This tip is for those moments when it all feels too much. When you feel you want to crawl out of your skin and anxiety is bubbling up. If it’s possible remove yourself from the stressful situation and go outside if you can. Take a deep slow breath while counting to 4, then breath out through pursed lips and count to 4. Then distract yourself with music or something to get your mind occupied. This will help if you hit an anxiety spike because you will find anxiety will subside. Anxiety is like a bully, it goes away when there is nobody to play with. So if you don’t engage it and just let it float by, you’ll find it gets less.
These tips and explanations are a start to learning how to overcoming anxiety. Overcoming anxiety is a process and takes work and effort. You will have good days and you will have tough days but always keep going, get the right help, and you will get better bit by bit. Anxiety is not to be feared.
For more information do check out other articles on anxiety at this link HERE
If you would like to contact Mark and get help with anxiety you can do that HERE
You may also like my blog on Anxiety, the confidence killer
