5 Simple Ways To Help You Deal With Anxiety
Everyone at one point in their life will experience a sense of anxiety or feelings of anxiousness. It’s one thing to experience this and another to live with it.
I myself, openly talk about my anxiety and how hard it can be to cope with many day to day things that many individuals will find easy to handle.
If you need some help or extra tips to learn how to cope with your anxiety, then here are some mechanisms that I use to help with my own anxieties. I am not a doctor, nor a psychologist so these are my own coping strategies I have learnt over the years of dealing with anxiety.
1. Communicate With A Trusted Individual
I find this so hard to do. I find myself shutting off and shutting down and not letting anyone in. I push everyone I care about away but in the end, it just makes me feel lonelier.
It can be so hard to be open with someone with the way you are feeling particularly when you already may be feeling like a burden. I experience thoughts of “I don’t want to put my problems onto them”, or “I’ll just deal with it myself”.
Trust me, this is never the case and it never works. Your friends, family, teachers, or whoever you’re talking to, will not take YOUR problems on board. They will talk to you, and figure out how to help you. They will NOTÂ think you are burdening them in any way, shape, or form if they care and love you.
If you don’t talk about what’s bothering you, you can’t expect to feel better. Communication is so important to help ease your mind and your anxieties and you won’t feel so alone.
Another important note, by not communicating openly with someone, your anxiety will lead you to becoming frustrated with your bottled up problems, leaving you to become snappy and angry with people. You don’t want to hurt the ones you love, (even though you’re not meaning to).
Anxiety turns emotions to anger. Communicate and it will get easier for you to deal with your issues hence being able to effectively communicate your emotions in the future.
2. See A Psychologist/ Therapist
There is absolutely no shame NO SHAME, in seeing someone to help you with your problems.
If you’re feeling as if your emotions and day to day anxieties are becoming too much for you to handle, then going to see someone can definitely help you.
This links back to the communication aspect I was talking about before. The more you talk to someone about what you’re going through, the easier life will become for you and the easier your anxiety will become.
I also find it quite soothing to talk to someone who knows nothing about me. They give you an unbiased opinion and tell you what is best for you. They are there to help you and will never judge you for how you are feeling.
Be open and trust them. It will help you in the long run. I also understand it can be scary to open up to someone new but the more you do it, the easier it gets. You may even form a nice connection with them making it easier to talk to them.
3. Practise Breathing Exercises
You do not understand how much this helps and how beneficial it is for both your body and your mind.
When I was first told to start practising some breathing techniques my initial reaction was, “I honestly cannot be bothered”. But after I actually took the advice on board, I felt so much better.
Mentally, my mind felt clearer. The breathing literally slows your heart rate down and puts your body into and state of ease and calmness.
Your mind begins to stop wandering when you practise this daily and all you begin to focus on is the breathing. I started off doing the exercises just before I went to bed to help me sleep.
I then put them into practise when I was starting to feel anxious in everyday life such as work or school. I clearly remember one day at work, a customer yelling at me for something and all I did was begin to breathe in and out slowly to calm my heart rate and soothe my mind.
This technique is also really good for if you ever experience a panic attack as it slows down your fast paced breathing.
4. Do Stretches Before Bed
This one is sort of like the breathing techniques where you begin to slow down your heart rate and ease your mind.
I find that stretching my body helps to release any negative energy I may have in my body and mind (as cheesy at that sounds).
It really does help to slow down the heart rate, and force yourself to focus on your breath and body rather than any anxieties you may possibly be feeling.
It helps to ensure you have a good night sleep and wake up the next day feeling relaxed. If you do some mindfulness techniques along with this, make sure you allow your mind to be clear and think of nothing that could worry you.
5. Exercise
This one is my favourite coping mechanisms that always works for me. I know many people think of exercise as intense workouts and things like marathon running but this just isn’t the case.
Simply going for a walk will help. Particularly if you walk through areas with dense nature. This will help you feel so much better as the environment can easily lift your spirits.
I find that running and intense exercises such as HIIT (high intensity interval training), will really help calm me down and make any anxieties I have become more at ease.
It shocks your system and forces you to think about what you are doing rather then on what is bothering you. Afterwards, you get an AMAZING release of endorphins that make you feel so good and push any anxiety away.
Trust me, try it and you will start to love it.
