Managing Anxiety – This blog will look at different ways you can manage your anxiety, quickly. The NHS website defines anxiety as “a feeling of unease, such as worry or fear, that can be mild or severe.” Symptoms of anxiety may include feeling restless or worried, having trouble concentrating, feeling dizzy, heart palpitations, not sleeping.
Feeling anxious is a normal part of life we will all experience anxiety at one time or another. Normally anxiety comes and goes according to the situation or circumstances we are facing. However, sometimes anxiety can become a constant presence in our life and we can find ourselves worry about everything, ruminating and unable to move forward. Anxiety such as this can be very restricting on our life and cause us to feel very stuck.
If you are someone who feels anxious often there are some lifestyle changes that you can make to help you manage how you feel. Below are some suggestions for you to think about:
- Exercising regularly – for ideas about how to start an exercise practice please check out this blog
- Stopping Smoking
- Cutting down on the amount of alcohol you drink
- Cutting down on the amount of caffeine you drink
You might also want to try online courses or tools. The NHS has a library of resources that you can access here.
Sometimes though, you might need a way to manage your anxiety quickly, particularly if you feel it is spiralling. The exercises below are mindfulness exercises act to ground you and short circuit the anxiety, to stop it getting bigger.
- 5,4,3,2,1 Exercise – when you are feeling like you are in an anxiety whirlpool try this out…. Become aware of your surroundings and the following things.
- 5 Things you can see. (your hands / the sky / flowers / the window / the lightshade)
- 4 Things you can physically feel (the floor beneath your feet / the chair beneath your hands / the feel of your jeans)
- 3 Things you can hear (cars outside / birds singing / a phone ringing)
- 2 Things you can smell (someone cooking dinner / perfume)
- 1 Thing you can taste (the mint or your gum / coffee /fresh air)
- Count all the red things you can see
- Count all the square things you can see
- Take 10-20 deep breaths
- Do the dishes- or in fact any cleaning or cluttering, whilst this might seem a strange suggestion, doing something manual, something with your hands is helpful. It encourages you to be mindful and in the present and you are “taking control of something that you can, but you’re also making your environment more soothing,”
The Good Housekeeping Magazine explores the psychological reasons behind why cleaning can be good to help us deal with anxiety. So if anxiety is overtaking you clean your cutlery draw, make the bed, clean out the car, or do the dishes. If you don’t feel like it perhaps just do it for 2 minutes and see how you feel.
Have an activity ready that will take your full attention. This could include:
- Watch a funny video
- Go for a walk
- Do a jigsaw / online or in real life
- Listen to music you love
- Dance
Alternatively think about an activity that would work for you that you can have at the ready when you need it. When we are anxious it’s hard to think straight to preparing and practicing can help us respond when we are under stress.
However, sometimes doing things on your own can be hard. If you think that Birmingham Counselling and Psychotherapy could help you with your anxiety or any issue you are struggling with please don’t hesitate to contact me. Please Call me on 07843 813537. Please leave a message if I can’t answer your call and I’ll call you back as soon as possible. If you have any other questions or enquiries please call or send me a message by completing the online enquiry form.
