Tools & Tips To Improve Yourself
12 Tips to Help You Manage Anxiety
If you suffer from bad anxiety, it’s important to acknowledge it so that you can get it under control so that it won’t stop you from thoroughly enjoying your life. These 12 tips to help you manage your anxiety will help.
1. Know What Makes You Anxious – If you have specific anxiety triggers that you know, make sure you track them. When you know that going to a PTA meeting makes you anxious you can help mitigate that with some preparation in advance.
2. Breathe Deeply While Focusing – When you do feel anxious instead of allowing the feeling to get worse, focus on breathing in and out deeply in a relaxed way. Focus only on your breath and not what is happening around you.
3. Try to Be More Healthy -- Eat right, sleep right, and exercise. Go to the doctor regularly for checkups and don’t ignore any symptoms you have. Anxiety can be a symptom of other diseases like heart disease, diabetes, thyroid issues, asthma and more.
4. Change Negative Thoughts to Positive Thoughts – When a negative thought, unrealistic thought pops into your head focus on a way to turn it positive. For example, if it’s raining think of the fact that your grass won’t have to be watered.
5. Ground Yourself in The Moment – If you are in public and suddenly feel a panic attack or even milder anxiety manifesting instead of ignoring it, try to ground yourself. Look at a familiar object while breathing or touch your partner or say hello to someone to take yourself out of the feeling and putting yourself back in the moment.
6. Smell Nature – You can go outside, or you can use aromatherapy to help you reduce anxiety. Smelling lavender can help you relax and sleep better. Try spraying some on your pillow before bed. Planting some lavender in your yard where it can catch the breeze is a good option too.
7. Go for a Fast Walk – Anxiety is often perceived as extra energy by your body. Your heart is pounding, and you may even be shaking or “vibrating.” If that’s the case, try walking fast to burn off that energy.
8. Meditate – Taking the time to meditate or if you prefer pray will also help you lessen your issues with anxiety in the moment. Just do it right before you do anything that might make you anxious.
9. Try Yoga – This type of exercise focuses on your core and breathing. It makes it especially suitable for anyone with any kind of anxiety. Most people report being much more relaxed practicing yoga daily.
10. Journal Your Thoughts – Every day, write down your thoughts. Describe what made you anxious and how you came out if it if you did. This will help ingrain a habit in you to work toward overcoming it.
11. Change Your Diet – It might seem like it’s not true, but eating poorly can also cause anxiety. If you eat a lot of packaged foods, you may be sensitive to the chemicals which can cause anxiety. Eat as close to nature as possible including drinking plenty of filtered tap water.
12. Get Professional Help – For some people, their anxiety needs someone who has been trained to help. You may want to hire a counselor or a life coach. It depends on how bad the anxiety is.
If you try all these things and still have issues with your anxiety, you may want to try medication to help. There are many different medications that can help you from traditional mood stabilizers and anxiety medications like Xanax and others that can help you temporarily as you learn new coping methods to overcome and manage your anxiety.
