How to Overcome Anxiety ~ 5 Definite Ways
We can be victims of anxiety for many reasons. A dramatic event, the nerves before a key moment or even a prodigious imagination that makes us see beyond what there is, can make us suffer from its symptoms. This is why knowing how to overcome anxiety is so very important.
But whatever the reason, they all have two things in common. The first is that you need to calm down to keep going. The second is the physical symptom that causes the short circuit that leads to anxiety and yes we can control.
How to Overcome Anxiety
1. Control Breathing to Overcome Anxiety
It does not matter what made you enter a state of anxiety. In all cases there is shortness of breath that causes a kind of short circuit in your body and in your mind. The breathing becomes rapid and shallow, which triggers other symptoms of anxiety.
In other words, if you are able to control your breathing you will be able to control the rest of the anxiety symptoms. But how can breathing be controlled in these conditions? The truth is that it is simpler than it seems. When we are nervous, we usually take shallow breathing. Therefore, the ideal is to move to deep, abdominal breathing. In this way, we relax the body and at the same time the Central Nervous System.
To control your breathing, just follow these simple steps. Applying the so-called 7/11 rule will help you overcome anxiety:
- Stop
- Concentrate on your breathing, without thinking about anything else
- Inhale as deeply as you can while mentally counting to 7
- Exhale slowly as you mentally count to 11
Do this for a minute. If you don’t get it the first time, don’t worry. Repeat again until you get it. The key is that the exhalation is longer than the inhalation. Through breathing we will achieve certain calmness, that is why it is so important to practice it. It is a very powerful and very useful technique, above all, because it always goes with us.
2. Prepare for situations that cause Anxiety
Many times we are aware of the events that can cause anxiety, either because we have already gone through them or because the mere fact of thinking about them alters us. In these cases, it is necessary to prepare yourself not to be victims of anxiety. When you begin to suffer the first physical responses to anxiety before an event that has not yet happened is when you have to start to remedy it . Don’t let anxiety take over you.
The first responses will begin with an acceleration of breathing that will translate into cold sweat, clammy hands, a bad mood, uncoordinated movements and other symptoms that will make your mind even weaker at the moment of truth. Your imagination will do the rest.
If you find yourself in this situation, rule 7/11 applies. Do not try to justify, do not try to understand the situation and do not intend to rationalize what is happening to you until you are able to control your breathing. And, to do so, try not to judge the situation. Moving emotionally away from the situation helps us neutralize stress and anxiety. This will prepare you for the final moment and it will be easier for you to calm down if you feel anxious again.
3. Mastering Imagination to Overcome Anxiety
Imagination has a role to play and is responsible for our having goals and objectives, for being able to plan our lives and for being able to dream. But sometimes imagination can play tricks on us and make it hard to overcome anxiety.
When we are in anticipation of something or a new circumstance arises, the natural thing is to think about what will happen. We are usually able to imagine scenarios that we could rank on a scale from most favorable to least.
However, there are people who are only able to imagine those at the bottom of the scale and therefore overestimate the probability of negative scenarios occurring. This is usual when the person has the vision that the world is a hostile place, full of traps set and designed so that we fall.
4. Streamline Emotions to Overcome Anxiety
In an anxious state it is very difficult to think clearly. The mind is clouded. The emotions dominate us. It is when emotions are diluted that we can begin to calm down. By rationalizing emotions we can change the brain switch and go from the emotional brain to the thinking brain.
To do this, think on a scale of 1 to 10 and give a value to your own fear. By doing this, your brain will begin to think and fight emotional dominance. Once you have given a value to your fear, visualize the value as if it were a thermometer and feel the level go down little by little and you manage to overcome the anxiety.
5. Meditation to Overcome Anxiety
It is important to know techniques to face anxiety when it invades us. However, they say that one of the best attacks is a good defense, that is, what if we train our minds to prevent these situations? Just as we train our bodies in the gym to be strong and healthy and prevent physical pain, we can also train the mind.
In this way, a large number of situations that previously had the power to cause anxiety, will now cease to have it. We will have taken control of the situation beforehand and we will have gone ahead.
An ideal technique for this is through mindfulness meditation. What does this practice give us? At first relaxation, something important in our day to day. However, if we practice 20 minutes of mindfulness meditation daily, we will see how our automatic anxiety responses disappear.
In this practice it is important to focus attention on the breath and not judge any thoughts, for better or for worse. In this way, we move away from the emotional involvement that activates a situation and we can remain calm.
Thus, when we live in a situation that causes us anxiety, we will have learned to control our minds and we will be able to be calmer than before. We must bear in mind that this practice must be carried out regularly and not only once a week. All training requires perseverance and motivation.
So go ahead! If we are able to control our minds, we will have taken a very important step in our personal development. Hence, one of the best and finest ways on how to overcome anxiety is to learn and try to control our minds. Once we’re able to control our minds and give it direction according to our will and wish we’ll be amazed to see how easily and swiftly we’ll be able to either overcome anxiety or say rather won’t get into it at all.
