Ways to Manage Your Anxiety

Work stress, relationship problems or sleeping issues- we all deal with so much in our day-to-day lives that can cause us anxiety. But it’s normal to feel anxious from time to time. However, it’s when our anxieties become relentless and overwhelming that we need to take positive action, and learn how to make ourselves feel better. When anxiety rears its ugly head, there are natural, lifestyle techniques called anxiety coping strategies that you can learn to use to control and minimize these attacks from happening.

Here are anxiety coping strategies to help you deal with your anxiety:

Physical Activity

Of all the most popular anxiety coping strategies we hear about, exercise is the most common. When you exercise, there are so many benefits that go beyond shedding a few pounds. Not only does it change the chemistry in your brain by releasing calming-neurotransmitters, but it also boosts your immune system, helps you sleep, gives you more energy and can even improve your learning capabilities. So, find something you enjoy doing and don’t force it, you want to like what you’re doing or else the pressure of making yourself exercise will just cause more anxieties for yourself.

Eat A Well-Balanced Diet

On top of being physically active, following a healthier diet will make you feel better as well. Choosing whole foods and grains when you can, drinking more water instead of sugary drinks, and eating more fruits and vegetables instead of processed foods will all contribute to a healthier lifestyle and make you feel better physically. Vegetarian options, liked canned lentils, eggs or tofu, are a healthy alternative to meat-based products and can even save you money on your grocery bill. Meal planning and shopping with a grocery list will help you manage your budget. Who knew anxiety coping strategies could be so budget friendly?

Set Goals

Having short, medium and long-term goals will help you focus and can reduce anxieties that we can get from overwhelming tasks or even for future events. Breaking up your tasks or goals into smaller, actionable goals on a daily basis can help you learn to cope when you get a little too “inside your head” and can’t find your focus. A great way to break down your goals into attainable action items is to set a SMART goal. A SMART goal breaks down into the following:

Specific: be clear and define your goal

Measurable: choose a way that you can use to measure your successes along the way

Achievable: give yourself a realistic timeframe to complete your goal

Relevant: give yourself a goal that will help you change the most, or be the most beneficial to you

Time: give yourself a timeframe to achieve it

Keep in mind that life constantly changes and that your goals can change too, but you must embrace these changes, whether good or bad, and incorporate them into your goals.

Deep Breathing

Deep breathing is a slow, purposeful breathing technique that helps to lower blood pressure and decrease the heartbeat by filling your lungs completely with oxygen. This method employs your entire diaphragm’s range of motion to relax your body while detaching you from stimuli. Yoga an meditation practices us deep breathing techniques for its calming and soothing properties, and it’s easy to incorporate this technique into your daily life when you feel your anxieties creep up.

Take A Break From Stressful News

While being informed is important, the constant “bad news” that seems to dominate our news media is quite stressful (not to mention a little bit sensationalized). Consider restricting your daily news consumption to just a few times and taking a brief break from your phone, TV, and internet. Social media use should be avoided as well. Your mind will thank you.

Cultivate Mindfulness

Mindfulness is a practice where you focus on being intensely aware of what you’re sensing and feeling in that moment, without giving interpretation or judgement to whatever comes up. There are many ways to practice mindfulness with one of the most profound and life changing is ways to do this is through meditation. This involves breathing techniques, guided imagery and other practices that are designed to reduce stress on the body and mind. Meditation is used to calm the mind and relieve stress by focusing on breathing or your immediate surroundings. This in fact changes the way that your brain reacts to stress and anxiety by helping you notice negative thought patterns and being able to accept them and let them go, which is the goal of mindfulness.

There are many ways you can meditate, there is the classic style where you simply sit in the quiet and stillness, or being introspective on a walk through nature. No matter your preference, establishing a daily practice, whether it’s for five minutes or twenty, will help you work through your emotions and move towards finding inner peace. Stay strong and stick to it, and you’ll see results in no time.

Practice Self-Love

Ask yourself this question: would you talk to a loved one the same way that you talk to yourself? Probably not. We are most often the hardest on ourselves and forget that we need to treat ourselves with compassion, not just others. How can you show yourself more self love? A key practice is that you make decisions for what you need, not what you want. Practicing self-love is about focus and being compassionate towards yourself, and nourishing yourself with healthy activities that you know will make a difference for your mental and physical health.

Find A Support Group

For many people, a health-related support group can fill the gap between medical or non-traditional treatment and the need for social support. Although your friends and family will want to support you through your wellness journey, sometimes they won’t be able to completely understand what you’re going through, unless of course they’ve experienced something similar themselves. They might be able to suggest and support you through anxiety coping strategies, but sometimes we just need something more.

Reaching out and finding a support group to discuss your shared experiences around your anixety can provide you with an invaluable opportunity to learn from the experiences of others. By sharing your own experiences surrounding the disorder and allowing yourself to openly discuss it with others, you can gain valuable firsthand information and learn other strategies on how to cope with what you’re going through.  Whether you participate in a physical support group or virtually, and by doing so, you’ll realize that you’re not alone either.

A Path Forward with Anxiety Coping Strategies

When we become aware of our anxieties and what brings them on, we can learn how to better manage them when they pop up. By being mindful and thinking about ourselves critically (but with love!), we can learn to overcome our stressors and learn to live in more harmony with ourselves. You can feel better-just breathe- and believe in yourself.

Meet Paul Wagner

Paul Wagner is an Intuitive Life & Business Coach, clairvoyant reader, and a five-time EMMY Award-winning writer. He created “THE PERSONALITY CARDS,” a powerful Oracle-Tarot deck that’s helpful in life, love, and relationships. Paul studied with Lakota elders in the Pecos Wilderness, who nurtured his empathic abilities and taught him the sacred rituals. He has lived at ashrams with enlightened masters, including Amma, the Hugging Saint, for whom he’s delivered keynotes at Her worldwide events.

Paul tours the world lecturing on spiritual liberation. He lovingly offers intuitive readings, inspirational coaching, and illuminating courses to help others with self-discovery, decision-making, healing, and forgiveness. Book a session with Paul: HERE