Dealing with Anxiety

8 Effective Tips to Start Dealing With Your Anxiety

Step 1 – Understanding Anxiety

Step 2 – Understanding Your Subconscious Power

Step 3, Discover a Positive Self-Concept

The way you describe yourself, your family, where you live and the work that you do are important  because these form the framework of how you feel about yourself and the life that you have created. The story you tell yourself about yourself has a huge impact on your daily life.

How to apply a positive self-concept in everyday life

First thing in the morning and last thing at night visualize yourself going through each day the way you wish to think, feel and behave. As humans, we are unique in our ability to imagine. When you close your eyes and imagine something, your body will respond to the images in your mind as if the event were really happening. Each day acknowledge what was good about the day and make a point of telling your family and friends about the good or funny things that happened. The mind forms memories through experiences so it is useful to acknowledge positive events and to build on these.

Step 4, Love – Learning to Love and Parent Yourself

Becoming an adult is essentially about shifting the power and responsibility from your parents to yourself. It is about letting go of any real or perceived hurt and pain from the past and realizing that to feel safe, secure and loved you must cultivate these feelings from within. Nobody can love you until you love yourself. The full realization that you are responsible for yourself is a fundamental step for mental well-being. You have everything you need within yourself, you are complete and whole. Feeling you are worthy of care and love and providing that for yourself is liberation. The most important relationship that you will ever have is the one you have with yourself.

Stop the habit of negative thinking

Top Love Tip

Have a photograph of yourself as a child somewhere you can see it every day. Each time you see it remember that your inner child is still within you. Always choose to speak to yourself with compassion and understanding, as you would speak to a child that needed your help.

Step 5, Care – Start Caring for Yourself

The habit of practical self-care is essential to implement when dealing with anxiety. Your body responds well to having its needs met and soon recognizes the rewards of a healthy self-care habit. After a period the body craves what the body gets. For example, if your body is regularly exercised it will begin to automatically expect this and feels deprived if it doesn’t get it.

Step 6, Happiness – How to be Happy

All of us, whether dealing with anxiety, stress or fear in our lives ALL want the same thing – to be happy. Happiness is about returning you to a state of being ‘unconsciously happy’ so that it becomes easier for you to trust in your ability to remain positive, even in challenging situations. Being alive and part of the human race inevitably means that you will have to face situations that you find, at best, difficult, sad, stressful or overwhelming and at worst, traumatic. It is in our response to these situations that our freedom lies. As previously mentioned, we always have a choice in how we respond to any given situation. Cultivating a core belief that you can and will manage any situation in your life when it arises gives you freedom. To really know that you are strong and capable is an empowering form of spiritual liberation.

Step 7 –  Compassion

Our historical legacy has infected us with the idea that it is unrealistic to be ‘happy’ all of the time, that life is hard and that we must accept our fate and struggle forth. To suffer is a necessary part of life. While it is true that we cannot avoid suffering, is it wise to be always constrained by the ropes of suffering even when they are not present? To suffer is to resist what is and when we accept what is, we are essentially free from the cause of our suffering. Acceptance is freedom from suffering.

Compassion is the key to accepting suffering. When you extend compassion to those who may have harmed you, you release yourself from suffering. Holding onto anger and pain is similar to holding hot coal in your hand and wondering why it hurts.

By acknowledging the vastness of creation and the forces of nature you begin to feel a sense of the magic of the unexplained. Your soul is lifted from the confines of your own ‘small’ life when you witness something profound and outside of yourself, for example, gazing at a star. Alain de Botton, author of Religion for Aetheists, said, ‘When you look at the moon, you think, “I’m really small. What are my problems?” It sets things into perspective. We should all look at the moon more often.’ What you contribute to the universe, to your community, to your work and family is what guides you towards an overall sense of being connected.

Top Compassion Tip

Avoid petty arguments that drain you and those around you by pausing and asking yourself: Does this really matter in the great scheme of things?

Step 8 –  Success

What makes someone successful – spiritually, emotionally, physically, mentally? What makes them more emotionally intelligent and confident than most other people? The answer is often simple: they have a core belief in themselves and in what they can achieve. So many areas of our lives require self-confidence, which is not something that comes easily to many: it is an essential skill that must be cultivated and nurtured. When you have an inner belief in yourself you are in a strong position to deal with the many challenges that you may face. What erodes confidence is often negative experiences or comments that have been made by other people.

Where does confidence come from? Someone who is confident has usually dealt with any fears that they may have had. They understand the root of these fears and as a result are not limited by them, nor do they hide behind them. Each and every one of us feels insecure at some point. Usually the root of this is our early childhood. Even in the most ‘perfect’ of childhoods you unintentionally learn behaviours that subconsciously protect you from emotional hurt or pain as a child but now no longer serve you as an adult. It is important to understand that what was once protective behaviour becomes negative and self-destructive. Humankind has a strong instinct to protect itself not only from physical threats but also from emotional pain. The very behaviour that you developed to avoid emotional pain is now creating just that. Identifying this mechanism through self-regulation and awareness will open the door to building self-confidence.

Most of us have areas of our lives that we wish to improve. For example, if your goal is to have a simple and peaceful life, what is preventing you from doing so? If you have ambitions to move up in your career, to own a more beautiful home, to have a family, to travel, then what is it that has prevented you at this stage from realizing these aspirations? Knowing what it is that has blocked you from moving forward is instrumental in starting to realize your dreams. If you haven’t already, it is now time to start asking yourself these questions and giving yourself honest answers. This pathway will help you to just that. Think of life as a river constantly flowing and adapting rather than as a stagnant pool where there is no room for progress. Water that is blocked is similar to blocked energy – it starts to rot. Unrealized dreams lead to bitterness and low self-esteem.

Top Success Tip

Practice letting go of your attachment to the outcome of your goals. Once you have done all you can practically to reach your goals, realise that true success lies in your ability to see opportunities in life, even when things appear not to be going your way.