Tips for reducing anxiety
There have been a lot of things happening around Chicago lately. Whether it’s the crime rate or the little changes in the communities within the city, change can happen pretty quickly. On a grander scale, it might be an understatement to say that a lot has happened recently. It’s understandable that with many changes happening around us, that stress can have us thinking about what can or cannot happen next.
Let’s bring a focus on what we experience when these things happen around us. We might hear something that happens in Lakeview or the South Loop that leads us to excessively worry about how this affects our life. That sounds exhausting!
That constant and persistent worry about the past, everyday experiences, and a heightened focus towards the future is anxiety working in your brain. It can cause disorganized thinking and even interfere with your daily life.
It’s not uncommon to hear someone talk about being nervous or have many stressors in their life. Having anxious thoughts in your brain is more common than we realize. Being in such a diverse city like Chicago can absolutely bring up what we’d call “future focus”; with so many things we have to balance including family, work, current events, and even a social life.
The truth is, having anxiety about basically anything is one of the main reasons people come in for counseling. And that’s okay!
A lot of times, it might be dependent on brain chemistry; how your brain sends and receives messages throughout your body for daily functioning. So even when everything you’re experiencing might be as normal as it can be, you might experience the irrational part of anxiety.
Our anxiety can also depend on the situation. Let’s say something you’re experiencing warrants a sense of concern on your part. That you’re participating in something situationally stressful. This is a rational reason for why your brain might be letting you know, “Hey, this right here is anxiety provoking!”
Here’s a few ways that you can rewire your brain when you feel anxiety kicking in:
1. Meditation
Not to sound cliché, but the power of meditation is an amazingly mindful experience. Going back to talking about irrationally anxious states, meditation allows you to focus on what’s happening with your mind and body.
Think about it like this, anxiety might be the thing that’s taken control of your thoughts, part of your mental steering wheel. Meditation, the practice of taking a set amount of time to focus on your thoughts, emotions, experiences in the present moment, gives you the opportunity to put yourself back in the driver seat.
2. Evaluate Your Fears vs Values
Anxiety is putting a strong focus on your fears; past, present, and future. With the understanding that, yes, while we do have fears in our lives, we also have values that we cherish and look forward to. So what would happen if we put a focus on the things that we cherish while also understanding that there are going to be things that scare us?
Acknowledging the fears that we have can be a powerful way for us to drive those said fears away, allowing us to focus on what really matters to us.
3. Balance Positives and Negatives
When we experience anxiety in our brains, there’s a tendency for us to really focus on the negatives that could happen. Many times, these “negatives” might be non-sensible or irrational. Meaning they don’t make sense in the rational world, but added on to the cycle of worry and concern in our brains, it might feel worse than it is.
What we can do here is take a step back in our minds; focus on what that irrational worry might be about, and think about the positives that are currently happening in our lives. It might be harder than it sounds. Because the negatives that we focus on sometimes can feel heavier than the positives, this particular tip can take more practice than we imagine.
4. Set Goals
Anxiety can be an overwhelming experience for anyone. At times, we might lose track of what we need to do whether it’s in our daily routine or just trying to accomplish some stuff around the house. Setting goals for yourself can help you rewire your focus for your daily tasks. Listing small things like taking care of the dishes can be helpful in rewiring your anxious thoughts into a more rational mindset.
5. Breathe
Believe it or not, breathing might be one of the most obvious things to practice when we’re in the face of anxiety. But, it’s also another thing that’s harder than we realize to effectively practice. Because one of the main signs of anxiety is a heightened heartrate, effective deep breathing can help allow your heart to take in more oxygen, slowing its beat rate down and also allowing your body to relax.
It’s harder for us to take in oxygen when we’re feeling anxious because our muscles are contracting faster; and, depending the severity, cause your body to feel stiff. Being mindful about our breathing can help us relax our muscles so that we can naturally “calm down”.
Anxiety doesn’t have to be an all-consuming experience. So, if you’re finding it difficult to control your anxious thoughts and emotions, counseling can be a great way to help manage your anxiety. I’d like to encourage you to seek out our help!
My promise to you is to provide a safe, judgment free space to express what’s on your mind and to gain clarity on your anxious brain. Feel free to use the confidential note option on our contact page or simply call at 773.528.1777. Thanks for stopping by!
