How Anxious People Can Regain Control Of Their Lives
Anxiety is unfortunately an all too common mental ailment, and one that doesn’t appear to be getting any less common either. If you are someone who tends to have a lot of trouble when it comes to anxiety, you should know that there are at least some important and useful steps you can take to overcome the issue, or at least to make it much easier to live with. In this post, we are going to take a look at just how you can hope to regain control of your life when you have an anxiety problem. These techniques and approaches should be very helpful.
Understanding Anxiety
Until you really understand the mechanics of how something works, it is going to be very difficult to actually overcome it or manage it effectively. So a good first step, albeit one that might take an entire lifetime to achieve, is to try and get to the bottom of anxiety, to learn as much about it as you can, and ultimately understand it as comprehensively as possible.
The more that you understand anxiety, the easier you'll find it to come to terms with your problem, and the easier it will be to overcome the various problems associated with it. It is therefore worth looking into the health manuals’ understanding of anxiety, or speaking to a doctor if you feel that might be necessary in your case.
The Cycle
A big part of how anxiety works is through a worsening cycle, and the more you understand how this cycle works, the more empowered you are going to be to learn how to overcome it, or at least work with it better. For most people, anxiety relates to a cycle of worry which gets worse over time, and it can be very hard to see through this process when you are in the midst of it. Something stressful might trigger you off, and then the thoughts get more and more anxious as time goes on, resulting in worse and worse psychological states. Clearly, this is untenable, and it’s something that you need to learn to understand fully if you are to really regain control of your life.
Being Protected
For many people, a common reason that they might experience anxiety or worry is because they do not feel safe. In the worst case scenario, this can be because you are genuinely in a very dangerous circumstance where you are not safe. That can be an extremely difficult situation to be in, and it’s one that you might need the help of friends, family or even the police and other authorities to help you escape. In those situations, there is no substitute for being able to actually get out of the situation, which can take a long time unfortunately.
If you are not in that kind of scenario, but you just generally feel unsafe in your home, then there are some things you can do. Remember that it is wise to protect your home and yourself, so you should definitely not overlook all those essential home security things like keeping your windows and doors locked at night and stocking up on stun guns or mace. But you might also want to think about how this whole scenario might be related to a general feeling of not being protected.
If you feel as though the world does not provide you with protection, then that is something that is worth investigating gently, ideally with a therapist who knows this territory well. It might be that it stems from childhood. Whatever the case, if you do feel this way, you should aim to get to a place where you feel naturally protected wherever you are. Believe it or not, that is your natural state, and getting back to that can really make a lot of difference.
Calming The Body & The Brain
As well as the psychological side of anxiety, there is also a physical and mental side. For many anxious people, it is just the case that their body is in a state of constant near-alarm, and that can be down to chemical processes as much as anything else. If you are a very anxious person, then your body might be high in cortisol, the fight-or-flight response chemical which makes you feel energetic and jumpy and is generally bad for your overall health. You will therefore benefit from being able to calm the body and the brain in one.
There are many simple approaches which achieve this effectively. You might take up a daily meditation practice, for instance. The simple act of sitting for ten minutes focusing on the breath might seem underwhelming, but it can have a profound change on your body and brain, and your experience of life in general, so it’s worth doing. Alternatively, you might take up a breathing exercise like pranayama, or combine this with a meditation practice.
However you do it, calming the body and the brain will be an important part of actually dialing down the physical side of anxiety, which is going to be a very important part of this entire process. It’s something that you will not want to overlook if you are keen to overcome your anxiety for good in this lifetime, and it can help no matter how bad your anxiety might be.
Presence & Self-Care
Everyone could do with practising better self-care. But those who experience a lot of anxiety are particularly concerned with ensuring that they are taking care of themselves, and it is definitely something that is going to be likely to improve things for you. A good thing to focus on is to try and stay present as much as you can, and to work on exercising and eating right every day. These things are going to add up to make a huge difference overall, so it’s definitely worth thinking about them.
If you can do all that, you should find that you are going to have a better control of your anxiety, and you should be able to regain control of your life soon enough.
