Feeling stressed and anxious at various stages of our lives is pretty normal and a part of life. You’ll often find yourself worrying about work, finances, family, relationships, and maybe about travelling. Let’s discover how to deal with anxiety in a very effective way.
Worrying can be seen as a good thing too because it makes you think about important things in your life and helps you to take better decisions. However, an excess of anxiety could lead you onto the wrong path. If that’s the case then you need to know how to deal with anxiety effectively in order to avoid serious effects regarding your mental as well as your physical health.
What are the signs of excessive anxiety?
- Difficulty concentrating or having blackouts
- The need to get reassurance from other people
- Over-planning
- Restlessness and being on edge
- Insomnia or too much sleeping
- Sore or tense muscles
- Constant irritability
- Excessive worrying that lasts for months
What are common causes of anxiety?
Anxiety isn’t caused by one factor but combined factors. There are a number of things that cause anxiety. There are life situations that will make you more anxious such as:
- work stress or changing jobs
- moving houses
- pregnancy and giving birth
- family/relationship problems
- trauma
- verbal, sexual, physical or emotional abuse
- death or loss of a loved one
Other factors that can cause anxiety are chronic physical conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, hypertension and asthma.
If you are feeling anxious or stressed, here are a few tips on how to deal with anxiety. Use these strategies to help you cope:
1. Take Some Time Out
Sometimes you’ll find that all you need to do in order to relax is to remove yourself from the stressful situation for a while. If you’re anxious you won’t be able to think clearly. When you feel the stress creeping in, take some time out to allow you to calm down. If you would like to know how to get rid of anxiety, follow this advice:
-> Check this out: 9 Benefits of Solo Travel and How it Shapes your Personality
2. Take a short walk
Go out and try not to think about the issue stressing you. Distract yourself by doing something else such as walking, grabbing a cup of tea or lunch, taking a bath etc. Also for immediate relaxation, try breathing deeply and slowly as soon as you start feeling anxious. Shallow chest breathing instead of fast breathing will relax your lungs, relieves the pressure and reduces the stress.
3. Face your Fears
Anxiety will often make you want to avoid whatever it is that is making you worried. Instead of avoiding your fears, deal with them heads-on. The more you avoid your fears the scarier they will seem. If you face panic attacks whenever you get into a lift, the best way to deal with your anxiety attack is to keep getting into the lift until you get over the fear. Try to take the lift with some other person first for a few times, then alone.
4. Don’t Beat Yourself Up
Anxiety is normal and it doesn’t mean you’ve done anything wrong. Beating yourself up about it will only add on to the stress. Don’t try to live a perfect life, be human and learn how to get rid of anxiety when it attacks you. Understand that occasionally there will be bad days, and that this doesn’t mean that there’s anything wrong with you.
5. A Problem Shared is a Problem Half Solved
Find someone that you can trust and talk to them about your anxiety. Talking to someone else will help you see that your problem is probably not as bad as you thought it was. Sharing your fears with others is one step in dealing with them. If you can’t find someone who you can trust, you can call a helpline and talk to the agents who will help you understand what is causing your anxiety and how to deal with it in a better way.
Sometimes your anxiety could be too much to be helped by a friend or family member. When this happens consider talking to a professional. You could see a therapist who is well equipped to help you from a medical and independent standpoint.
6. Add Mood-Enhancing Foods Into Your Diet
There are actually foods that will uplift your moods. A balanced diet is good for stabilizing your mood. There are nutrients found in fruits and vegetables that help your body to fight anxiety during stressful times. Some foods such as coffee, alcohol, and sugar, elevate stress levels and should be avoided.
Add foods that are high in antioxidants and vitamins D, B, and E to your diet. Such foods include eggs, salmon, almonds, acai berries, blueberries, flax seeds, and walnuts. They will lower stress hormones and uplift your mood levels.
7. Exercise More
Regular exercise is highly effective in relieving symptoms of anxiety. Exercise will make you feel happier and relaxed. Try doing cardiovascular exercises such as jogging, walking, running and weight training to reduce anxiety. If you don’t have a workout routine already, start with a low impact activity such as simply walking. This will work too. No need to for high impact exercises if you’re a beginner. Yoga and meditation are also great for relieving stress. Find a good studio that is quiet and with a soothing atmosphere to calm down your anxiety.
Our Most Popular Tip on How to Deal With Anxiety
8. Reward yourself
This is the most important tip on how to overcome anxiety. Yes give yourself some TLC. When you’ve managed to do any of the above strategies and your mood is improving reward yourself for a job well done. Every once in awhile, do something that makes you happy. Go for a massage, a spa treatment, buy yourself something new, whatever will make you feel good. A reward every now and then will motivate you to keep working on your anxiety to a point where you completely manage the condition.
If you’re feeling too stressed and you wonder how to deal with anxiety, remember, the best way to fight it once and for all is to first find out what is causing the anxiety. If it is an underlying chronic disease, then work on treating it then use the above strategies to curb anxiety on a daily basis. Celebrate your wins often and try to avoid unnecessary stressful situations that will only aggravate you further.
Have you been experiencing chronic anxiety? Is there one thing that you find to be especially helpful? Share with us your experience on how to deal with anxiety in the comments box.
