Ways to Control Your Anxiety

Anxiety can make you feel out of control of your thoughts. Try these tips that can help keep moments of anxiety from becoming spirals.

1. Take a step back When the negative thoughts begin, it is important to take a moment and step back from them. Analyze and observe your thoughts. Use this time to determine whether these thoughts hold any merit and are realistic or not.

Your thoughts don’t define you and most of them are not based in truth; you made them up.

2. Accept your thoughts Accept your negative thoughts and welcome them in. Don’t be immediately dismissive of your thoughts. Take them in and understand why you are feeling this way.

Avoiding your thoughts, running away and putting them in the back of your mind isn’t doing anything to help you develop a positive process. These thoughts will just grow and fester if you continue to avoid them. 3. Draw on past experiences

Think back to a previous time you had the same or similar worries and thoughts. What happened in that situation? Did it really turn out all that bad?

Most of the time, you were fine; the world did not end. Use these past experiences to give yourself strength and confidence to move forward and not fall down the rabbit hole. 4. Use a reinforcing statement

Develop a reinforcing, comforting statement, also known as a mantra. Choose something that makes you feel better and keep repeating it until your thoughts diminish.

5. Change your anxiety routine My habit when negative thoughts arose was to run to the medicine cabinet, grab my pills, pop a few and hide from the world. Looking back, this was not the best solution. Instead, try changing your routine.

Change your venue, go to a different room or leave the office for a few minutes. Try to do some exercise, take a quick walk, do some yoga or even a little meditation, instead of running for the pills. Sometimes a good long walk helps more than a anti-anxiety pill ever will.     

6. Try mindfulness

Live in the moment. This is a form of meditation that can help you welcome your thoughts in and watch them float away. Don’t dwell on the thoughts for too long. Understand they are just thoughts, and you can blow them away.

7. Breathe Do a breathing exercise. Take a few minutes, close your eyes and breath in slowly for a long count of four, then breath out even slower for a count of eight.

You can even check out some YouTube videos with guided breathing exercises. They are all mostly the same and follow similar principles. Focus on your breath and it will have an amazing centering affect on your brain.

8. Journal or start a diary

For me, writing is incredibly therapeutic. Turn to your journal or laptop anytime you need to escape the downward spiral. Jot down all the thoughts that come into my head, all the worries, all the negativity and then scribble them all out.

This follows the same principle of accepting your thoughts and dismissing them, just in written form. Sometimes my ramblings even turn to stories you can post.