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Living with anxiety can often bring on a sense of fear or feeling like other people are constantly judging you, maybe you start to panic in social situations or you may even feel like you cant stop worrying about things all the time. Having anxiety isn't easy so, our therapist has put together five useful tips to help you feel like you can cope better and develop some skills to manage your anxiety.
Think about how you think!
This is such an important step, question your negative thoughts don't let them consume you, ask yourself how real are they? Try to think about what evidence is there to support your negative thinking? What are your assumptions based on? where did you learn or here this from? How valid/ true is this? Can you see things in a different way? Try to promote your healthy thinking, as this can help to ease anxiety, replace negative thoughts with encouraging positive ones. Using a model such as the cognitive triangle could assist you to see how your negative thoughts effect your emotions and then go on to effect your behaviours. The cognitive triangle is a simple process that illistrates how your thoughts can impact how you view yourself and how you behave as a consequence of this. Aniexty therapy can help you overcome your negative thoughts and help change your behaviours.
Get moving
If possible move away form the thing or situation that brings on your anxiety, take a short walk to clear your mind and take some time to practise breathing techniques to help elevate your mood. I'm sure we've all heard it before, but exercise can be a great way to increase your mood and help with confidence and lower stress levels which in turn can all assist to ease some feelings of anxiety.
Try to identify your triggers
Knowing what is likely to bring on your anxiety can help you to mange it better and recognise when its about to come on. If possible try to limit your exposure to things that bring on your anxiety, if you can't limit your exposure then look at using other coping methods.
Don't be alone
Often anxiety can make people want to shut themselves away from the rest of the world, however, being social with friends and family can boost your mood and may even give you a space to talk about your feelings if you feel safe to do so, friends and family can often be supportive, so try not to hide away.
Write it down.
Writing can be a powerful tool, find time to write about how you've been feeling and manging with your anxiety. This will also allow you to keep track of when it was triggered and what methods of coping worked well for you. Additionally, keeping an journal can allow us to reflect on our feelings more and help you work through thoughts that bring on anxious feelings.
We hope you find these tips useful if you are suffering from anxiety then speaking to a health professional such as your GP, or a therapist can also be beneficial.
Do things that help you keep a healthy mindset, encourage and engage your positive thinking skills!
Thank you for the tips. It's really informative and helpful.