4 Solid Ways to Deal with Anxiety
Deal with anxiety in order to live life more soundly and progressively
Many times than not, you’ve probably heard that no emotion is bad per se, may be difficult to experience or deal with. You’ve probably also heard that emotions are only signals to what’s currently going on inside us. One of such emotion is anxiety.
Anyone can suffer from anxiety at work, relationships, home, or in other general life sectors.
As someone who has suffered from anxiety for many years without realizing it until now, I can tell you now that anxiety isn’t a bad emotion to feel. Yes, it’s painful, difficult, uncomfortable, but never bad. It’s a sign that something is off, thus reflecting in your mood.
Yet, it doesn’t mean that when anxiety ensues, that it’s an emotion to “necessarily” accommodate.
One thing with anxiety I’ve discovered over time is that if you attempt to rid it, you exacerbate it more. And you teach your brain to regard it as bad or dangerous. Thus when next you feel anxious, your brain finds ways to rid it — painfully. But, rather than rid it, or avert it, here are 4 solid healthy ways to deal with it when it affects you:
1.) Name it:- When you name how you feel, it becomes comprehensible what you’re feeling and steps to take to manage them — which is antithetical to not knowing how you’re feeling or what you’re feeling. The best ways to know are: pay close attention to yourself, to your feelings, moods and monitor any changes in them. Then try describing it to yourself; “I feel unsettled, furious at nothing…” or “I feel anxious” if you know and have suffered from it.
2.) Validate it:- No one else is better at explaining how you feel better than you. So if you seek external validation to how you’re feeling, it won’t help with making you manage it. So, you need to validate what you feel. Like I said before, anxiety occurs for a purpose; it’s either you’re afraid of something that is to come or that has come. Validate the purpose of what you think the anxiety is there to do. That way, you won’t try to avert or rid it.
3.) Accept it:- Acceptance of something you can’t control they say, is the best tactic to evading stuntedness in life. Accept that you suffer or are suffering from anxiety to enable you to manage it the right way — sooner rather than later, when it won’t have caused more harm. This, however, doesn’t mean you have to act on it. It’s not a taboo to have anxiety but it is unnatural to say you don’t get anxious from time to time. You owe it to yourself that explanation as to what’s going on on the inside and accepting it for the same sake, not to someone else.
4.) Let it go:- Once you accept something you can’t change or control, you’re giving up that control. This means that you know what it is, have validated its occurrence, and you’re now willing to let it go. Naturally, that is. On its own. The same way it came, let it dissipate.
These are 4 major ways I try to manage “the” anxiety (not mine, not yours) when it comes. It has served me better in life. The benefits of calmness and mindfulness cannot be overemphasized in managing such a difficult emotion as well. It’s a matter of making up your mind soon enough to follow these steps. In order to live more soundly and progressively.
