Anxiety is one of the most common diagnosable disorders, in fact it is number 1. Anxiety can impact our thinking, our emotions, and most commonly our felt sense. Most people experience anxiety in their bodies. This can feel like stress, tension, buzzing, stomach knots or pain, chest pain, and sweating.
When anxiety hits us, it is hard to know what to do. But it is not hopeless! Coping skills have been proven to help us manage and accept anxiety. Here are the top 4 skills we at Counseling Embodied talk with our clients about.
NUMBER 1... Take a breath! Breathing techniques are an excellent way to calm and reset our thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations! There are many different breathing techniques: box breath, nose inhale mouth exhale, slow exhale to name a few, so take your pick. But keep in mind that practicing a minimum of 3 minutes of breath work will be the most helpful in regulating your mind a body.
NUMBER 2... Change your environment! When you are able to, a change of scenery can be really helpful in moving through our anxiety. Examples of this include walking to a different room in the house, walking outside and taking in your surroundings, if you are at work take a short break and move to a less busy area of the office, roll your windows down in the car. If you are able to do some much needed breath work while you are changing your environment, it will be that much more impactful!
NUMBER 3... Slow down your thoughts! Anxiety does a really good job of speeding everything up and making every thought seem like the most important or absolute thought we've ever had. The reality is, that is not true. Using direction statements like "I can slow down my thoughts" "I do not need to think like this right now" "These thoughts are not helpful" can help us come alongside those frantic thoughts and slow the speed down. If you want a little more oomf, say your name! When we hear our name (out loud or in our head) it packs a little extra punch in getting out attention. Once you use a directory statement, try to focus on a task, mindfulness skill, or body sensation. And you guessed it, if we add in some breath work while we are using this skill, the outcome will be even better.
And finally NUMBER 4... Accept the anxiety! Yes you read that right, accept the anxiety. This is a hard concept but a very easy practice. When we can accept that we are anxious and will feel anxious, then those power hungry fear and worry emotions have less strength. Acceptance is a valuable tool in learning to lean in and accept our experience rather than fight against it. You can accept the anxiety in a few different ways.
1) Use acceptance statements: "this is anxiety" "this is familiar" "I will get through this" "I know what is happening"
2) Practice some mindfulness skills to give your brain something else to think about: 5 senses exercise, body scan, counting backwards, looking for all the colors you can see
3) Engage your body: push against your thighs, press your feet into the floor, move your shoulders and neck, stretch, try the butterfly hug
Comentarios