Uninstalling Anxiety

Deprogramming your negativity

Today, scrolling through my Twitter notifications, I saw that one of my followers recently posted a question:

“How do I uninstall anxiety?”

I thought to myself, wow, isn’t that a poignant question. We aren’t born with anxiety. It is a learned response, a programmed response if you will from situations that we experience as we are maturing. This is why different things cause different people anxiety. Driving on a highway for one person might be no big deal, but for someone else, it can cause a lot of anxiety. If we have been programmed to experience anxiety, if it was “installed” in us over the years, can’t it then be uninstalled?

My answer is yes. It’s not an easy or even a quick yes, but it is a yes. The first step in uninstalling anxiety, is to notice the situations in our lives that cause these feelings. Where are you, or what is happening to you when you start to feel anxious? It could be in particular social settings, or at work. Noticing when these feelings occur will enable you to complete the second step in uninstalling anxiety: Conscious Breathing. That’s right — I’m talking about good old (very old actually) pranayama or breath control. Find a quiet space, at your desk, in your car, or even in a quiet part of a crowded room. Close your eyes and draw your attention from the outside world, inside, to your breath. Notice it, feel it, and then slowly start to elongate each breath. Draw the prana, the air or energy, down into your diaphragm, deep into your lungs. Just take a few moments to consciously breath. Open your eyes and take stock of your feelings. You’ll notice you’re a bit more relaxed or a bit more energized.

Consciously breathing when we start to feel anxiety creep into our lives will not only help to keep it at bay, but it will also replace anxiety with a much more calm and confident feeling — uninstalling anxiety and replacing it with a new, consciously programmed response. It’s not a magical cure, and depending on the severity of your anxiety can take much longer to attain this desired effect but with practice and patience you can uninstall your anxiety.

We often lump stress in with anxiety and other negative feelings. There are a myriad of other stress relieving tools and activities at your disposal — you just need to find what works for you. Yoga and meditation have helped many people melt away the physical symptoms or manifestation of stress in our bodies. For others running or walking is a great way to mitigate stress, whatever the cause. Reading, journalling or even fictional writing are other great tools. I’ll take yoga, combine it with a book in a hot bath and some aromatherapy for an amplified stress reliever. Snuggling a pet or a love one (and using your hormones) is another way to relive stress. If you are feeling overwhelmed with stress or anxiety, give yourself the time to relax and unwind. Try just a few poses here, or two chapters there. Try lighting a candle and some conscious breathing. If it works then you have found another tool to add to your kit. If it doesn’t work for you then you know that there are other tools that you can try. Just like our personalities and the things that cause our stress are different — so too will be the tools that we use to get rid of them.

The one tool that we can all experience relief from though, and that is available to us at any time, is conscious breathing.

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