Anxiety is a normal feeling. It’s your body’s natural reaction to stress. When you are under pressure and worried, your body reacts by producing a chemical called cortisol. Don’t get it confused; cortisol is the stress hormone your body naturally produces when it reacts to stress.
The good news about anxiety is that once you learn how to manage it, it can become a manageable condition instead of something that controls your life or makes you afraid of situations. The bad news about anxiety is that there are so many things that can make you anxious: from your environment to personal habits, from genetics to past experiences, and even the way you think about things and react to stressful situations.
Anxiety is an emotion that manifests itself when you feel fear, helplessness, suspense, or anticipation of a future threat. The feeling can come on suddenly and cause extreme distress. For many people, the stress of daily life can make it hard to enjoy things like going out with friends or family or going to a new job.
If you are one of those people who find daily life difficult because of your anxiety, read on for tips on how to conquer your anxiety and enjoy life again.
Take things one step at a time
When you have a lot of anxiety, it can be hard to see the big picture because you’re worried about everything that could go wrong. Be patient with yourself and take things one step at a time.
Start small and you’ll be surprised by how much you can achieve. For example, if you want to reduce your anxiety about speaking in public, just practice a few times until you feel comfortable. Each time you speak in public, you will feel less anxious about it.
Eventually, you’ll be able to speak in public without any anxiety at all. So, if you have a big goal, break it down into smaller steps and conquer them one at a time. This way, you will have a much bigger chance of achieving it.
Don’t beat yourself up over your feelings or mistakes
No one is perfect. No matter how much you try, you will make mistakes and mess up sometimes. If you beat yourself up over these mistakes, you are just going to make yourself even more anxious.
Remember that life is not perfect and trying your best is good enough. If you mess up, don’t try to make up for it right away. Instead, just forget about it and move on with your life. Accept that you made a mistake, because everyone makes mistakes, and you are allowed to feel that way. You make mistakes only because you’re human. So don’t beat yourself down because of it.
Use Mindfulness and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
In order to conquer your anxiety, you need to do more than just change your feelings or habits. You need to learn how to identify your anxiety triggers and how to respond to them differently. To do this, you need to start with mindfulness. What is mindfulness? Mindfulness is about learning to observe your thoughts and feelings without getting caught up in them.
This is a great way of reducing anxiety because it helps you accept your anxiety and not get mad at yourself for having those feelings. Mindfulness is also about practicing to live in the “here and now”, which is a key to managing anxiety. If you can learn to live in the present moment, you’ll be able to respond to what’s happening without worrying about what’s happened or worrying about what might happen.
Cognitive Behaviour Therapy is a way of addressing your anxieties and the anxieties that people who are suffering from anxiety have. You’ll learn new ways of thinking and reacting to situations that will help you overcome your anxieties.
How to practice mindfulness -Sit in silence for 5–10 minutes to let your thoughts calm down and become less anxious. -Use your breathing to ground yourself. -Observe your mind. What is your mind thinking and feeling? -Let go of what you’re thinking and feeling. -Use your mindful practices as a way to ease your anxiety.
Learn how to identify your anxiety triggers
Your anxiety might be triggered by certain situations, smells, sounds, or people. Try to identify these triggers and do everything you can to avoid them. It’s important to know what causes your anxiety so that you can address it. Anxiety symptoms can be triggered by many things. For example, a small change in your environment, a specific person you’re around, or even a small challenge in your day or work can cause you to feel anxious.
Here are some common anxiety triggers: -Being on social media when you don’t want to be. -Being around negative people. -Being around people who are anxious or struggling. -Being around people who are more successful than you. -Seeing negative news headlines. -Watching television shows that make you anxious. -Hearing music that makes you anxious.
There are a lot of triggers for anxiety, and one of the best ways to reduce your anxiety is to identify what they are and how to reduce or avoid them.
Don’t Dwell on the Past
When you have anxiety, it’s so easy to dwell on things that have happened to you in the past, especially if they made you anxious or frustrated you in one or another. In order to get rid of your anxiety, you need to learn to let go of these things because they don’t control you.
When you dwell on the things that have happened to you in the past, you’re going to become more anxious about things easily and even setbacks in the future.
Eat a balanced diet
Anxiety can be caused by poor diet, dehydration, and lack of sleep. You should eat a balanced diet that includes healthy protein, carbohydrates, fiber, and vitamins. If you’re having trouble with anxiety, talk to your doctor and dietitian about what foods may be affecting it.
In order to reduce anxiety, you should consider eating: -Healthy protein: This helps you make the right hormones to calm you down and sleep better. -Carbohydrates: This helps you feel relaxed and happy, reduces stress, and increases serotonin. -Fibre: This helps you feel more relaxed and reduces stress.
Choose Intentionality over Randomness
When you’re struggling with anxiety, it’s easy to get caught up in random thoughts and feelings (temptations and addictions) and act on them. However, this only makes things worse and wastes your energy.
It’s important to remember that thoughts and feelings don’t happen randomly but result from certain experiences, thoughts, and emotions. That’s why you need to be intentional with your life!
Intentionality is the act of being intentional with what you do or want to do in life. It’s also the act of creating a vision for your life and creating a plan to achieve that vision.
Intentionality is the best way to conquer anxiety because it’s one of the ways to reduce your stress and keep you focused.
Take a walk, try yoga or martial arts, or do meditation
When you feel anxious, you can try taking a walk or doing an activity that makes you feel better. For example, if you feel anxious about speaking in public, you can walk to distract yourself or try breathing exercises or yoga to calm down.
Yoga is particularly good at reducing anxiety because it involves focused breathing, which is a key part of dealing with anxiety.
Wrapping up
Overall, anxiety is a normal feeling. It’s basically your body’s natural reaction to stress, and this causes your body to produce a chemical called cortisol due to pressure and worry. Although anxiety may prove a hard condition to deal with, with the right information and tips like the ones stated in this article, it’s possible to overcome it.
Author’s Bio
Success Osahenkhoe is a PR expert, writer, and content creator who has served in many parastatals. He loves writing, speaking, and composing great content that helps brands achieve their goals. Success Osahenkhoe is also a former special assistant to Nigeria’s Edo state government on gender issues.