Anxiety can soon start to take over your life, and sometimes, you can’t stop yourself from feeling worried and anxious about a particular situation.
However, worrying has never achieved anything for anyone, so it’s important to learn a few simple techniques to calm yourself down when the anxiety starts to take over.
1. Concentrate on breathing
Many people will tell you to ‘breathe’ when you’re feeling worried, and it’s true that you can start to hyperventilate or hold your breath when you’re feeling nervous, worried or stressed about something.
When you start worrying, take a moment to really concentrate on your breathing. Count to five as you inhale and then count to five as you exhale. Repeat this for as long as you need until you’re feeling more settled.
2. Focus on the positives
Rather than focusing on all the things that could potentially go wrong, think about everything that could go right. Imagine a situation when nothing goes wrong, and everything goes exactly as you want it to go.
This is particularly good if you’re worried about a situation such as an interview, meeting or performance. Imagine everything working out in your favor, and rather than going ahead thinking about negative things, turn it around.
3. Have a massage or take a hot shower or bath
It’s amazing just how much these little things can help you to stop feeling worried. Even though worry and anxiety come from our brains, it starts to affect you physically too. You might start to get more tense, develop headaches or even get shoulder and back pain.
Not only can hot water help you to feel better, but a head or shoulder massage will make your worries disappear, if only for an hour or two.
4. Talk to somebody
If you have worries, talk to somebody you feel comfortable with since there are many benefits to doing this. One benefit is that talking to somebody helps you to offload anything you’re feeling tired or stressed and worried about. It also allows you to talk it through and get a different point of view on a
situation that is causing you some worry. It’s good to get some fresh ideas and insight, and other people can bring you back to reality and help you to understand that the situation isn’t really as bad as it seems.
