Be aware of anxiety, where it comes from and how to get on with your day.
The world is a tumultuous place right now, people all over are anxious and afraid. For some people this kind of anxiety is unfamiliar, for others it is a feeling they have done battle with many times.
Whether anxiety is familiar to you or not, the AWARE acronym is an easy way to prevent anxious thoughts from continuing and help yourself to regain control of runaway negative thoughts.
Anxiety is a natural response for the brain, like many animals, anxiety in humans is a survival instinct that is designed to be triggered in a life threatening situation, it allows the body to activate body responses that make it more likely to survive.
The Anxious response
These survival responses are commonly associated with anxiety but aren’t always understood as the instinctive response that causes them:
- Rapid heart rate,
- Short rapid breathing,
- Tense muscles.
These responses allow our bodies to respond quickly and efficiently to any emergency event. It’s the same response our ancestors would have had spotting a lion while crossing the savannah, or coming across a tiger or a jaguar while deep in the forest.
But in our modern world, anxiety is more typically triggered by our thoughts, fears of embarrassment or personal doubts, however real or ridiculous they may be. These small triggers can rapidly grow to become overwhelming feelings of dread or doubt.
This switch to an alert, worried state of mind, activates the something called the sympathetic nervous system. It’s the name given to the bodies automatic response that causes us to be ready to respond in life or death situations. It’s the same response that triggers some people to throw up when they are nervous or feel jittery.
Anxiety is normal
Feeling anxious is a normal response. There is no shame in experiencing bouts of fear or doubt. The best way to move past it is to acknowledge it, don’t try to ignore it. These feelings have underlying causes that will rarely go away on their own. Take charge of your anxiety, use the AWARE steps to begin the process of dealing with whatever is causing you distress.
When we feel grumpy, upset or bothered by something, it is not always triggered by a larger, frustrating event. If you can’t put your finger on what is causing you to feel off, try the H.A.L.T. method to assess these simple daily needs.
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