Anxiety Management - Vital skill for a hurly-burly lifestyle

Learn how to manage your anxiety to live a composed, calm, and content life. Before stepping forward, imprint the following belief in your brain. 

“Anxiety is your buddy when you learn to befriend it.”  

Our perception decides our mindset and beliefs help to form opinions about ourselves. Hence, wrong perceptions and beliefs are the root cause of anxiety mismanagement. Let's see how to be aware of anxiety, how to regulate the state of anxiousness, and how to manage anxiety skillfully.      

 1. Approach like a scientist - This is the most crucial point regarding

managing anxiety. When you feel anxious, your brain generates thoughts that are unhelpful and negative. Having negative thoughts is a normal response as a part of the brain's survival mechanisms. An approach like a scientist turns out to be a helpful way of looking at a situation. What does it mean? Think about all possible practical ways before concluding or assuming that the situation you are encountering is true. Most of the time, our storytelling about a situation is way too exaggerated than the actual situation. Hence, approaching like a scientist is a sit-back or laid-back approach in which you can think over and analyse situations rationally. This point of view will help to differentiate between your illusionary thoughts and thoughts that are in tandem with reality.    

 2. The power of now - When you feel anxious, the brain automatically withdraws bad memories, emotions, and feelings from the storeroom of the brain. Delink these thoughts series by shifting your focus to the present. During this time, the brain loves deep diving into “could be” and “would be” thinking. Once the anxiety kicks in, the brain showers in the guilt trap of "could have been" and "would have been" thinking. Bring back your focus to what is going on now to break this unhelpful thinking loop. Intentionally, drag your attention back toward whatever tasks you are doing presently.    

3. Take a pause - It is obvious that when you get the slightest idea of anxiety popping in, you get extremely nervous, hyper, and panicky. In such a case, take a pause. Hold your thoughts where they are and as they are. Close your eyes and take a few deep breaths. Mindful breathing helps to rewire the neuron's circuits. You can also start chanting sacred mantras or holy prayers to ease out the anxious loop. Learn to deal with anxiety with a spiritual tinge. You can also hold your charged crystal in your hands while humming the saintly words till you feel better.   

4. Journaling the story - Penning down thoughts is extremely important to seek clarity in your cloudy mind. I find this step to be working effectively in tackling anxiety. You keep feeling more anxious and uncomfortable unless you write down your thoughts. Penning down will help to reflect on your thoughts. Journaling is like talking to your best buddy who is not going to judge you at all. Maintain an “Anxiety Journal”. This will help to keep track of triggering events, feelings, and coping mechanisms. 

5. Mindfulness hours - Feel the tender warmth of the air... Listen to the melodious songs of birds chirping...Hear the crushing sound of dried leaves as you walk upon them...Give an ear to the roaring sound of waves...These are your enriching moments of solitude to calm down anxiety with absolute mindfulness.  

6. Breathwork with yoga - Anuloma Viloma Pranayama (yoga practice) focuses on the process of inhaling and exhaling. Breathwork helps in regulating mood and emotions. Resting your mind, body, and soul with yoga is a miraculous way of feeling better with anxiety. Hence, do this pranayama early in the morning and before going to bed. This yoga exercise will make you feel rejuvenated and also provides sound sleep. 

7. Listen to the music - Listen to calm, and soothing music. You can also merge meditation practice with this. Play nice music in the background. Close your eyes. Relax your body or shake your body to feel your vibrations. Breath mindfully. Observe every breath. Centre yourself to pay conscious attention to the things that are happening around you.  

8. Nature time Nature is the natural healer. A person who is very close to nature embraces the enormous gifts offered by mother nature. The best healing therapy is taking a nature walk every day. Observe the plants, and their changing colours, shapes, and patterns mindfully. Sniff the aroma of dried leaves. Bask in the sunlight to discover sunrays inside you. Stare at rainbows to colour your stale life with vibrant crayons. Sit in the window early morning, and observe things happening in the vicinity. Nature time is your quality time with selfless mother nature.      

9. Creativity overloaded - Engaging yourself in creative activities is a way of distracting yourself from chaos by entering into serene moments. Decluttering and organizing the living space, playing your favourite instruments, dancing flawlessly to your favourite tune, nourishing the fruits and flowers by gardening, playing with pets, cooking a tasty starter for dinner, and sketching a photogenic scenery will help to feel relieved and relaxed.    

10. Shut up the inner critic - Internal conflict does make you feel miserable. That annoying inner voice just never shuts up. The more you try to suppress that voice, the louder and more unbearable it gets. Words that you use in self-talk are very powerful. Consciously reconstructing the inner dialogs from time to time is very essential.  

11. Start living - Don't stop enjoying your life just because you are screwed up with anxiety. You can be happy, content, and successful even with anxiety issues. Develop inner trust and higher faith. Learn the art of living with all your issues, and problems. Make them a part of life not by letting them overpower you, but by taking control of your life in your hands. Remember, it is absolutely “Ok” not to be “Ok”!

Simply cherish small blessings in life, like...Walking in the sand barefoot... Drenching in the rain... Cooking a new dish...Dancing to your favourite song... Singing a song that you like... Lying on the wet grass...Watching clouds pass...

Walking on the seashore with a mind empty and a heart full...

Staring at a beautiful polka dot of a ladybug...  These simple things will never fail to blow your mind with absolute amazement.    

12. Task planning - Prioritize your tasks so that you will be able to balance out your personal and professional commitments. Make a to-do list with "Urgent", " Most Important", "Not So Important" and " Least Important" categories. Don't overcommit with tasks you choose to do in a day. Time management along with task management is important for segregating daily chores. Plan and strategize your particular day’s activities well in advance to avoid the last-minute fuss.

13. People pleaser - Never seek out social validation for the way you look or the way you work, or for that matter, for anything else in your life. Don't try to please everyone to be in a “good book” of people. People's approval and validation will not only exhaust your mental energy but also hamper your mental health due to constant anxious thoughts. There will be name-keeping, taunting, hating, bullying, bogging, and teasing by people even when you do your best for them. Therefore, rely on self-validation and self-approval. 

14. Social media detox - Decide a time slot during which you will be active on social media. By doing so, you will learn to manage your screen time. The illusionary world of social media is super addicting. Everybody out there is trying to show the perfect rosy life that they choose to project on these platforms. This reason is responsible for causing anxiety issues as people are constantly comparing their lives with fake realities. Moreover, people feel the pressure of getting thousands of likes and comments on their filtered social media posts and honeyed stories. This is disturbing and degrading the quality of life. Understand healthy boundaries, the flip side, and the pros, and cons of social media influence. 

15. Professional help - Don't hesitate to approach medical professionals, counsellors, or life coaches to get proper guidance and direction if you feel you are heading nowhere in life and feeling lost in life due to any issues. Share your problems, and issues with trustworthy folks. Suppressing issues inside will have a rebounding effect that will only worsen the problem further with improper resolution. Know the verge where it is vital to address your concerns. 

An exercise for you before wrapping up…Grab a pen and paper or take out your anxiety journal. Get a cup of hot chocolate, meditate for a while, and start writing the answers.

Rule of the exercise - Honesty is the best policy!

~ How do you feel when you get anxious? 

~ How did you cope with anxiety last time when it got triggered? 

~ What triggers anxiety within you?  

~ What works best for you to deal with anxiety?

~ Do you want to take any further steps to tackle anxiety? If "Yes" then what are those measures? 

Sometimes we don't need to do mumbo-jumbo things to bring unmanageable situations under control. Even the simplest things in life can have a significant impact. Do you remember the belief that I asked you to remember in the beginning?    

Over to you!