Coping with Anxiety
If you know that feeling of your heart beating so fast that it scares you in a stressful situation, then you won’t be a stranger to anxiety. You might be someone that gets sweaty palms when you’re confronted with something in particular, or experience a dry mouth when you need to speak in public. However you feel it, know you are not alone. According to this page, 40% of disability worldwide is due to depression or anxiety.
If you haven’t figured out what triggers your anxiety, then here are a few common things to think about; it could be social situations, a first day at something new like a new job, or having to speak in public. We all have different triggers and if you are able to identify what yours are, then it can make a big difference in how you cope with anxiety and how you manage your anxiety attacks. Identifying the trigger for you can take some time, and requires some self-reflection. But in the meantime, there are a number of things that you can do to help you to keep your anxiety and possible panic attacks under control.
You might find that your anxiety is sporadic and doesn’t happen often or it might stop or calm down after a triggering event. Other people experience low level anxiety nearly all the time. Here are some pointers for coping with anxiety:
Question your thought patterns
If you feel that you are anxious about something, then negative thoughts can take root and then start to distort things. So one way to do that is to challenge your fears and think about the reality of it all. From there, you can think about where you can take back control.
Practice focused, deep breathing
Taking some time out to focus on your breathing can really make a difference. So take some time to try breathing in and then out for a few minutes. With daily practise, it can make a difference to help you become more calm, as it can slow your heart rate too, bringing the anxious feeling back down a notch.
Use aromatherapy
I’m a huge fan of essential oils and certain scents like wild orange, lavender, sandalwood, and chamomile can be really soothing. Using these oils can help to activate certain receptors in your brain, which can potentially start to ease anxiety.
You could also look to use other oils, like CBD oil or CBG the new cannabinoid oil. The latter is a powerful supplement that can give some medicinal benefits, and CBD in general has been long known for anxiety and health.
In fact, CBD now comes in a variety of forms from Legal Hemp Buds and infused food such as chocolate or gummies. This means it’s even easier to find a way of taking CBD that suits your tastes and lifestyle. After all, if you are using it to cope with anxiety, you don’t want to cause yourself more unnecessary stress by having to take it in a form you dislike!
Go for a walk
One of the best things that you can do to stop that anxious feeling is to simply walk mindfully. This can help you to take some time to help you to focus on other things and it can help to get your body moving and your mind thinking about other things. It can be a good way to relieve some anxiety.
Write down how you are feeling
You can write down how you are feeling, which can help too. If you are writing down things that make you feel quite nervous and anxious, then it can help you to remove the thoughts from the mind in a little way, and have them on paper. It can feel like a physical relief by getting them out of your mind.
These simple ideas can be helpful for those people who only experience anxiety from time to time, rather than on a weekly or even daily basis. If you have longer term anxiety, you may need talking therapy or more focused meditation or help such as hypnotherapy.
Some general triggers for anxiety are listed here:
- Stress at work
- Driving or travel
- Genetics (it can run in the family)
- Medications
- Trauma
- Phobias
- Caffeine
- Other mental illnesses like depression
- Chronic illnesses like diabetes or asthma