What is a Healthy Way to Reduce Anxiety?

If you feel anxious much of the time, your anxious thoughts can easily overtake your life and stop you from doing things that you enjoy. When your anxiety is taking control of your work, relationships or self image, then it is important to look for coping strategies. This will help you learn to keep your anxiety in check, so that you can go on with your life.

Everyone copes with stress in life from time to time. Stress is a normal part of life that can't be avoided, no matter how much we try. So, how do you know if you are coping with normal life stressors, or if you have anxiety?

Stress is situational. It comes and goes depending on the daily situations that you are facing. Anxiety however, is something that you feel all or most of the time. If you are anxious, you may wake up feeling like you are in a panic even if nothing has gone wrong.

Learning the symptoms of anxiety is a first step towards finding out if you need to seek our professional help for your mental health. Chances are, if you have been feeling this way for a while, you probably need to find out what is going wrong in your life.

You are not alone

Even if you feel like you are different from your friends and family because of the constant anxiety that you are experiencing, you aren't alone.

Anxiety Disorders are Some of the Most Common Mental Health Conditions

As many as 20% of US Adults experiences an anxiety disorder. This means, you aren't alone in the way you feel. Just knowing that you aren't the only one feeling this way can be extremely helpful. Also, it means that many mental healthcare professionals are quite skilled in assisting with anxiety disorders.

Finding a skilled therapist is a good first step towards assessing whether you have an anxiety disorder. A therapist can help you learn coping skills for your anxiety, so that it won't completely consume your life. Additionally, you may be prescribed medications that will help to reduce your anxiety. The combination of therapy and medication can have a powerful healing effect.

In addition, you can find support groups either online or in person that can help with your anxiety. Talking with others in a similar situation can be very healing because it allows you to discuss how you are feeling without fearing that you will be judged for your anxiety.

As you become better at speaking up about your anxiety, it will feel less isolating. Likely, people in your life can be very supportive as well. Friends and family in your corner can make a big difference in your healing process as well.

Treating Anxiety

When you begin to work with your therapist, likely they will have homework assignments for you to do in addition to talk therapy. This can be extremely helpful, as it teaches you to apply the lessons that you learn in therapy in your everyday life.

Learning to reduce stress and practice daily self care can go a long way towards keeping your anxiety in check. The less stressful your life circumstances, the more you will begin to feel in control of the way you feel.

According to Healthline, here are 16 Simple Ways to Relieve Stress:

1. Get more physical activity 

2. Eat a balanced diet 

3. Minimize phone use and screen time  

4. Practice self-care

5. Try journaling

6. Reduce your caffeine intake

7. Spend time with friends and family

8. Create boundaries and learn to say no

9. Avoid procrastination

10. Take a yoga class

11. Practice mindfulness

12. Cuddle

13. Spend time in nature

14. Practice deep breathing

15. Spend time with a pet

16. Consider supplements

If you are anything like me, having anxiety means you are in your head all the time. You may think of the worst possible consequences of everything, and run through disturbing scenarios in your head throughout the day. This can be especially disturbing right before you go to sleep, and keep you awake throughout the night.

Anything you can do to be more present in your body, paying attention to what you are doing, instead of being caught up in your thoughts can help you to be less anxious. This is why practices like mindfulness, meditation and yoga can be so helpful. As can spending time with people you are close to, in nature, or with a pet. Feelings of love and connection can reset your hormones and help you calm down.

By finding activities you enjoy, and participating in them with people who make you feel good about yourself, you learn to be more present with what you are doing. This type of presence reduces anxious thoughts by making you focus on something else instead.

When you are feeling stressed and anxious, it can have physical effects. So, when you focus on your health and wellness, it can also reduce your stress and anxiety. By doing things that are good for your physical health - which can be as simple as taking a 10 minute walk - you can improve your mental health as well.

Conclusion

There are many ways that you can treat your anxiety, if you are willing to make some lifestyle changes and work with a professional. When you decide that you don't want to let anxiety control you anymore, you can make positive changes that will lessen its hold on your life.

Many of us suffer on a daily basis from anxiety, you are not alone, and you don't need to feel ashamed of your anxious thoughts. By speaking up for yourself and asking for help, you are taking the first step towards healing.

Right now, it may seem like your anxious thoughts are going to control you forever. We all have days that we feel like that, with an anxiety disorder. However, when you learn coping skills to calm down and get out of your head, it can go a long way towards having a more fulfilling life!