5 Strategies for Anxiety

5 Strategies for Anxiety

Anxiety (along with depression) is the number one disorder and affliction among individuals today. Plain and simple: it is f’ing hard stuff. It also looks different on different people. One person’s anxiety may look like a social phobia or the inability to function in specific social environments. Another person’s anxiety can be triggered by life events (work, personal, parenting, etc). And, another person’s anxiety may feel and look like a generational presence: grandpa has anxiety, dad has anxiety, daughter has anxiety.

It comes in many flavors, disguises and symptoms. Anxiety can cause many physical ailments too such as sleep disorders/disruptions, digestive issues, negative impact on blood pressure and cardiovascular systems, weight gain/loss extremes and so much more. Anxiety, can be, dangerous.

Below are five strategies to aid one to release the negative thoughts, emotions and symptoms of most anxious experiences.

FIRST. If you are experiencing severe symptoms that impair your ability to function in key areas of your life, or you are having thoughts of self harm- seek the professional help of your physician and/or mental health expert.

5: Chew it out. Yes, you read that right. Chew it out. Anxiety stems from the root emotion of fear. Fear, back from the pre-historic ‘cave man’ days, developed from being in danger, whether real or perceived. This is the physiological reaction to our sense of danger- the flight or fight response system each of us have. The idea being that we were fearful of either starving to death or being eaten by a tiger. When you are chewing, like say gum, it notifies your brain that you are safe. It is a small shift. If you are chewing something your body’s system knows you can’t be starving or being attacked (if a tiger were going to eat you, you wouldn’t be chewing, you would be running or screaming). Grab a piece of gum and chew it out.

4. Work it out. When we get anxious thoughts or emotions, it triggers a release of hormones, whether felt or not, of adrenaline and cortisol. If this happens several times throughout a day, it can cause major disruptions to many systems of the body. One way to use these small rushes is to work it out, literally. If you experience an anxious thought or symptom do one of two things: drop into a plank, or hold a wall squat and breathe deeply. Hold for 30-60 seconds at a time until you feel your body release some of the tension. This puts the hormones released to work (burn it off instead of absorbing) and you get a quick little work out too. Not to mention you will sleep better.

3. Ridiculously catastrophe it out. NOTE- if part of your anxious experience is to think catastrophic thoughts or if you have any self-harm thoughts, skip this one. This one is meant to take you from a fear based place, to a humorous place. As an example: you become anxious because you might miss a deadline at work. Go ridiculous on it. Say: I might miss this deadline. Then I will get fired. Then I will be homeless. Then I will join a circus. Then I will have to learn how to juggle. Then I will have to die my hair blue, learn to juggle and live in a tent. You get the idea. You get to such ridiculous levels that it shifts you into a perspective of: ok, this isn’t the end of the world, I am safe in this moment and catastrophe is not coming because of this thought. (Another strategy for those that had to skip this one: make an appointment with your anxiety. If you get an anxious thought, say to it: “look, let’s meet and discuss this around 4pm today, k?”. This does really shift it to a back burner, and if distracted properly, shifts it out of consciousness completely. If not, at 4pm do another one of these tips.)

2. Joy it out. Or humor it out. If you are the type that can throw on some funky music and sing and dance it out- do that! Dance goofy. Sing loudly. Make funny faces in the mirror. Do a dance with your child, or cat or dog. If this doesn’t work, look up funny clips on YouTube. I think I have an evil twin inside me cause the prank shows crack me up. Look up shampoo pranks or fake picture pranks on YouTube and then after you cry laugh at them, call me and let me know you have an evil twin too.

1. Serve it out. When we are in a dark place, the fastest way to move to a lighter place is to serve others. I was having a particularly dark anxious day a few weeks ago while in the car line at Starbucks. As I got to the window something took me over and I bought the car behind me their order. I got an immediate shot of joy knowing that could have made the difference of a good day vs a bad day for someone else. You could also call someone and tell them how awesome they are. You could go serve at a shelter or drop off some donations. You could pick up a bunch of trash around your community. You could deliver cookies (or fruit!) to your local police/fire stations. There are numerous ways to serve it out.

These are not meant to be cure statements, or take you from a place of mental disruption to complete peace immediately- but they are small shifts, when done regularly, that can move you from the dark side of anxious experiences, to a lighter more freer/embracing side.

And, if all else fails, we can join the circus and learn to juggle.

xo