Mental Health Tips
Managing your Anxiety
Estimated Reading Time: 3 minutes, 6 seconds
Many people will experience anxiety at some point in their lives. Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the United States that affects 40 million adults. Anxiety is a common response when we are going through big life changes, such as career changes, moving, or financial and health troubles. When the anxiety starts to become larger than the events themselves or your everyday life and routine are affected, it may be a sign of an anxiety disorder. Signs and symptoms of someone struggling with anxiety can range from excessive worrying, restlessness, agitation, fatigue, difficulty concentrating, irritability, and more. If you need help managing your anxiety, here are some tips to help you manage it and overall better your life.
Identify your Sources of Stress. Try to identify your specific sources of anxiety by starting an anxiety/stress journal. You can write down the anxieties you experience and record the anxious thoughts you have. This can also help you determine possible triggers. Once you’ve identified specific sources of anxiety and stress, you can take steps to avoid them or at least work to manage your feelings toward them.
Use Relaxation Techniques. Techniques such as these are a good way for you to stop, take a breath, and learn to control your anxiety and stress. Deep breathing will work by taking 10-20 slow and deep breaths to calm down. Breathe in as deeply as you can, hold the air in for several seconds, and slowly let each breath out. Other techniques you can try out are meditation and mindfulness.
Think Positive. When you have anxious thoughts or episodes, they are preceded by self-sabotaging or negative thoughts or behaviors. To help with this, write down your negative thoughts once you feel them. Then, jot down the exact opposite of those feelings as well. As you become more comfortable with writing down these positive thoughts/affirmations, you can start to visualize and believe the outcomes.
Get Organized. Having poor organization can also be a source of anxiety and stress. If this is the case, learning good time-management skills could benefit you. Manage your daily tasks with to-do lists, calendars, planners, reminder cards, action programs, and more, to make you feel more in control.
Exercise more. Exercising regularly can help reduce your anxiety and serve as a release for any built-up tension or stress you may have. Search for ways to incorporate fitness into your daily routine, as studies have shown that exercise has a positive effect on anxious thoughts. Meditation and yoga can be productive activities to manage anxiety and focus on your breathing.
Watch What You Eat. You can decrease your anxiety by eating healthier foods and drinks and limiting your intake of caffeine, alcohol, soda, and junk food. This also means not skipping meals, eating a balanced diet, and staying hydrated throughout the day.
With anxiety as a common struggle for many all over the world, it is important to find ways to identify where we think our anxiety is coming from and how to use that information to better manage it. When anxiety is better managed, it improves the quality of life and gets us back to spending quality time with the important people in our lives and enjoying the things we like to do.
Resources:
“Facts & Statistics: Anxiety and Depression Association of America, ADAA.” Facts & Statistics | Anxiety and Depression Association of America, ADAA, adaa.org/understanding-anxiety/facts-statistics#:~:text=Did%20You%20Know%3F,of%20those%20suffering%20receive%20treatment.
Julson, Erica. “11 Signs and Symptoms of Anxiety Disorders.” Healthline, 10 Apr. 2018, www.healthline.com/nutrition/anxiety-disorder-symptoms.
“Tips to Manage Anxiety and Stress.” Tips to Manage Anxiety and Stress | Anxiety and Depression Association of America, ADAA, adaa.org/tips.
The Mind Tools Content Team, By the Mind Tools Content Team, et al. “Dealing With Anxiety: Understanding and Managing Anxious Thoughts.” Stress Management Techniques From MindTools.com, www.mindtools.com/pages/article/dealing-with-anxiety.htm.
You may like…
by Ernest L. Rossi
Type: Hardcover
It has long been recognized that mental processes affect physiological states, but pinpointing the exact mechanisms has taken longer. Integrating cutting-edge research in psychobiology with innovative techniques of mind-body healing (the ideodynamic approach), this volume will be essential reading for all clinicians who work with clients with psychosomatic disorders, stress-related problems, sleep disorders, and other problems in which mental and physical processes are both involved.
Each of the book’s ten major sections is divided into chapters on Theory, Clinical Practice, and Research. The introductory sections on theory carefully outline new models of psychobiology that are the basis of mind-body therapy, psychoneuroimmunology, and stress-related disorders. Major psychobiological concepts are illustrated with newly created images highlighting the major pathways of mind-body communication and healing.
The chapters on clinical practice contain hundreds of engaging case reports from Cheek’s 40 years of clinical work. These vivid cases illustrate how ideodynamic signaling forms a bridge between the verbal and physiological levels in the therapy of stress-induced disorders. Rossi and Cheek present numerous practical techniques using a creative three-step approach to therapeutic hypnosis: (1) access the psychobiological sources of problems; (2) reframe them therapeutically; (3) ratify the therapeutic gain. Throughout the text, boxed outlines summarize the exact words and approaches used by the authors in specific clinical situations ranging from pain management to sexual dysfunction.
Chapters on research suggest intriguing lines of investigation involving the new frontier of mind-gene-molecule communication and its implications for healing practices. The authors propose 64 ideas for new research projects for readers interested in contributing to this emerging area of investigation.
Ultimately, Mind-Body Therapy guides and empowers readers to find the keys to their own well-being and health. Therapists of all persuasions will be well informed by Rossi and Cheek’s many clinical illustrations of converting symptoms into signals, and psychological problems into creative resources.
Rossi has done it again! He has compiled the works of one of the most creative elder statesmen in the field of hypnosis…Clinicians who use hypnosis for exploration in psychotherapy or with psychosomatic disorders, pain, medical problems, surgery, or sleep disorders will definitely want this book. In its synthesis of clinically practical information, theory, and topics for research, this is one of the finest volumes to be published on hypnosis. It will be stimulating to clinicians, academicians, and researchers alike.
-D. Corydon Hammond, Ph.D.
This is a combined venture of a researcher and clinician who link theory and research with practical applications. A wealth of data that belongs in library of anyone involved with psychosomatics and hypnosis.
–Charles B. Mutter, M.D., Past President, American Society of Clinical Hypnosis
by Roxanna Erickson Klein, RN, PhD, Ernest Rossi, PhD and Kathryn Rossi, PhD
This volume illustrates how classical psychosomatic medicine becomes psychosocial genomics just as surely as the 21st century becomes the 22nd. This is an example of how science is self-correcting and continually evolving. Erickson's Collected Works is updated with current concepts of neuroscience, psychosocial genomics, and bioinformatics for students, clinicians, and researchers who wish to extend his innovative therapeutic approaches into the future. Erickson mediated the transition between classical hypnosis as a curious alchemy of abnormal states of mental dissociation and suggestion to a new form of psychotherapy when he began publishing his early studies of psychosomatic phenomena in the 1930s.