Anxiety is natural. Many suffer from anxiety disorders, or often have feelings of nervousness, stress, or tension, from time to time. Fortunately there are a few steps you can take to try and help manage it. While these methods will not get rid of your anxiety, they will help you cope with it and hopefully provide some physical and mental relief in the process.
1.) Relax The Right Way
Anybody who has anxiety knows that its not easy to just relax, and even when we are “relaxing” we’ll probably never be as relaxed as those who don’t suffer from anxiety. However, knowing how to relax the right way is key to better managing anxiety. Watching TV or sitting in front of the computer, may seem like a nice way to relax, but the truth is these types of activities could actually end up making your anxiety worse. This is especially true since activities like these, stimulate the brain. In order to really relax, why not opt for an activity that actually has a physical effect on the mind. Deep breathing or yoga are great activities to try. Unlike watching TV or sitting on the computer, which only help you relax temporarily, activities like deep breathing, help to relax the major nerve that runs from the diaphragm to the brain, sending a message to the entire body, allowing everything to slow down, thus helping you loosen up and truly relax.
2.) Cut Down On Caffeine
Just like TV and computers, caffeine is another thing that stimulates the brain, and can even cause us to feel jittery. Anybody with anxiety knows that having your heart race and feeling jittery and full of too much energy, is the very last thing you need when you’re already dealing with a bad episode of anxiety. Caffeine can make all those racing thoughts even worse, and can even make it harder to calm down. Sometimes drinking too much coffee mixed with anxiety can make it harder to think, and can even make it difficult to talk without struggling to find words or complete sentences. Ditching the coffee or soda and drinking water instead is a great way to keep making progress when it comes to coping with your anxiety in a more effective way.
3.) Get Enough Sleep
If you want your body and mind to be strong enough to handle the stress that comes along with anxiety, and are looking for peace of mind, you sure aren’t going to get it on only a few hours of sleep. Getting the right amount of sleep each night, and exercising on a regular basis will help keep your mind sharp, and your body feeling better. Exercise sends oxygen to every cell in the body, so that your mind and body can operate together at their very best.
4.) Build A Support System
Having a strong support system and spending time with friends and family is ideal for helping to deal with anxiety when it starts to make your life feel out of control. Having the support and security from your loved ones can really help; so can being able to share and/or vent. Sometimes being able to talk to somebody who listens and cares about you, can help you feel better understood and can also help put things in perspective. Sometimes saying things out loud can help us gain that mental clarity we need to take control of our anxiety and come up with better ways to cope.
5.) Seek Professional Help
While the above steps can all be helpful for better managing stress and anxiety, it is important to never ignore anxiety that is extreme or interferes with your daily life so much that it becomes hard to function. A little bit of anxiety every now and then is completely normal, but having so much anxiety that it keeps you from doing the things you love, or holds you back in some way, is an issue that should be addressed by a professional. Anxiety disorders can seem crippling, but they don’t have to be. Getting the proper help from a medical professional is important, since they will have the tools necessary to help you gain more insight on the disorder, and be able to give you additional suggestions and methods to cope. They might even prescribe you a medicine which could help.
