How to outsmart anxiety in five steps

Goals of Living

Author

3 minutes read

Your heart rate is rising, you’re feeling weak and you feel small in a big world. Anxiety is normal, it’s estimated that 275 million people worldwide have this condition. It’s an important factor to know you’re not alone and the disease can be treated. There are highly successful treatments such as cognitive behavioral therapy which will help you process it, some of these techniques originated from those types of sessions. 

  1. Deep dive to the worst thought
  2. Have a worry-session
  3. Cold showers
  4. Tea
  5. Exercise 

1. Deep dive to the worst thought

This technique is from a real lesson from a cognitive behavioral therapy session. The idea is that your thinking pattern is like a continuous game of tennis. 

Worrying thought -> Comforting thought

Comforting thought <- Worrying thought 

Worrying thought -> Comforting thought

When your mind is constantly in this feedback loop your anxiety never ends. A better way of handling your worry is to figure out what you’re scared off by continuously asking yourself what the worst possible outcome of your worry is.

Example: 

Worry: I’m afraid I’m gonna lose my job

Worrying thought 1: I wouldn’t be able to pay my bills 

What’s the worst about the previous scenario?: I would get evicted

What’s the worst about the previous scenario?: I would have to move back to my parents

What’s the worst about the previous scenario?: …

Keep on thinking until you land at an outcome. If concluding your worry didn’t help you, keep reading your scenario twice per day and expose yourself to it, once you are used to the possibility of your worst scenario it’s not gonna feel as bad anymore, and the worry loses its power.

2. Have a worry-session

The worry session is about taking 10-60 minutes a day and writing down all of the different things that worry you. This concretizes what worries you actively, and in the back of your head. Your brain is actively worrying because it’s trying to remember a problem and find a solution. When I feel it’s too much in my life, or I start getting worried I have a worry-session and write down everything that bothers me, worries me, and scares me. Once I can’t think of anything else I sit down and figure out what the most important worry was to fix, then I set up a S.M.A.R.T goal so I know I have a plan to get the worry out of my life.

3. Cold showers

Cold showers sound unpleasant, at the very least. Coming from a person that thinks a normal heated apartment is freezing, I know where you’re coming from. Cold showers have a huge list of both physical and mental benefits, it’s not only anxiety decreasing. I have tested this every day for about two weeks now and I don’t want to start my mornings without it, I feel focused, clear-minded, and alert, which is one of my main techniques for setting up an amazingly productive morning.

Here’s a list of some of the benefits that cold showers can have.

  1. Potentially boosting weight loss
  2. Reducing muscle soreness
  3. Increasing circulation
  4. Helps your wake up
  5. Increases your alertness
  6. Improves your skin and hair
  7. Decreases anxiety
  8. Lowers depression
  9. Decreases stress
  10. Boost happiness levels

4. Tea

A lot of types of teas are loaded with antioxidants and are often synonymous with mental and physical health. One of the antioxidants is called epicatechin and it helps to combat the negative effects stress has on your body, and it can improve your memory. Want to give it a try? Look for green tea next time you’re at the store. You get a lot of benefits for a low cost!

5. Exercise

Exercise is hard and extremely beneficial. It has tons of both health benefits and mental benefits. I take daily walks, usually before lunch and after dinner, because I know it will make me mentally sharper, and I know I will feel good afterward because I set a goal, and I finished it without a problem. This is my main motivation, but what else do I get for free? A whole lot, check out the following list:

  1. Decreases/regulate weight
  2. Helps prevent stroke, metabolic syndrome, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, depression, anxiety, different kinds of cancer, arthritis
  3. Increases mood
  4. Boosts energy
  5. Helps you sleep better
  6. Can help your sex life
  7. Good for your muscles
  8. Can help your skin health
  9. Can help your brain and memory
  10. It can reduce pain
#anxiety#goals#mental health#mentalhealth#mindfulness

Summary

Have a session when you write down what you’re worried about, find out what your worst fears are. Take daily cold showers, drink tea and exercise on schedule.

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