Anxiety is a normal feeling to have with everyone feeling a certain level of it in their lifetime. The sense of tension, nerves and apprehension are all very common symptoms that our bodies go through during outbreaks of anxiety. There are many reasons why people might feel anxious, whether it’s due to job difficulties, home problems, or relationship woes. While it is a normal feeling, there are ways that we can overcome anxiety and give ourselves a calmer sense of mind.

Luckily, there are many methods you can try out to help you overcome anxiety and we will look to explore these throughout this article. From relaxation techniques to talking to peers to avoiding bad habits, it’s important to try a mix of different methods to see which ones suit you the most and fit your personality to help calm anxiety.

Continue reading for the best tips and advice that could support your wellbeing to make you feel calmer and more grounded.

 

Tips for Overcoming Anxiety

Accept the Anxiety

The first step to curing your anxiety is to be accepting of it and realising that it’s happening. This can help you ride out the symptoms and let them take their course naturally rather than trying a range of different techniques to overcome them. Having time to think about why we are anxious can be a good stepping stone to cancelling them out in the future.

While distracting ourselves and avoiding anxious thoughts can be very effective strategies, simply riding through the anxiety can make you less afraid of it. This helps because one of the main reasons for people feeling anxious is due to fear of certain situations.

 

Avoid Stimulants

Certain stimulants can negatively affect your mental health and make you feel more anxious. Caffeine and alcohol are two stimulants that should be avoided if you consider yourself to be an anxious person, as each of these has negative effects. For example, drinking an excessive amount of coffee can induce more anxiety and alcohol can worsen symptoms over the long term.

A lot of people turn to nicotine when they’re struggling with anxiety, as most people choose to pick up cigarettes and smoke them. However, this is bad over the long term as it’s bad for your health. Velo freeze is considered to be a better alternative to nicotine intake through cigarettes.

 

Relaxation Techniques

Feeling relaxed is the opposite of anxious. There are relaxation techniques that you can use to help with your mental wellbeing and avoid feelings of anxiety. Yoga and meditation are two of the main relaxation techniques that are proven to cure symptoms of anxiety. Both of these can help you with calming your mind and balancing your emotions so that you are less worried about your surroundings and feel more confident.

Yoga sessions help you to feel more relaxed, but if you take some of the techniques used in your class and practise them throughout your day-to-day life, you might find that you get a better quality of sleep too. This can help you feel less anxious, as with more REM sleep our minds can fully recharge for the next day ahead.

 

Distractions

Taking your mind away from feelings of anxiety can be beneficial in the short term, as it can allow you to get over small anxious bursts. Everyone has different distractions that they rely on to keep them from thinking about woes in their life. For some, it could be doing a physical activity but for others, it could be something like getting lost in a novel or comic.

One of the toughest times of day to find distractions from anxiety is during the night when it’s time to go to sleep. Being laid in bed trying to sleep with looming anxiety isn’t good for your physical or mental health. You should get out of bed and find ways to eliminate your anxious feelings before attempting to sleep.

 

Visualisation Strategies

Combining mindfulness and breathing through visualisation gives you a new way to calm your brain and stop you from feeling anxious. The 5,4,3,2,1 technique is one example of this. To complete this, you need to name five things that you can see, four things that you can feel, three things that you can hear, two things that you can smell and one thing that you can taste. This is made to calm yourself down and distract your brain from anxiety.

You could switch out any of these for your own visualisation strategies that you think could help with your symptoms of anxiety.

 

Exercising

Burning off your anxiety by exercising is a proven technique, as the adrenaline can prevent any bad thoughts from entering your mind. This exercise can be high intensity or something as simple as going for a walk, it all depends on which one you prefer. Taking part in exercise releases positive endorphins. These Endorphins are natural brain chemicals that can improve your sense of well-being and take your mind off worries.

Exercising gives you something to do that will let your mind wander into other aspects of life and depending on the exercise, you will be focusing on performing your best.

 

Sharing Feelings

Talking can help you get through many emotions in life and you share what’s making you feel anxious to overcome it. Your peers can help you better understand why you are feeling this way and guide you in the right direction to improve your mental wellbeing. Friends and family therapy make for the perfect people to share feelings with, as they understand you more than anyone else.

There are share groups that you can join to help you talk about feelings of anxiety. You will hopefully be in a room with people who share similar feelings to you.

 

Listen to Music

Music is one of the most powerful tools in the world, as it can make you feel certain emotions and completely change your outlook on life. Especially when you’re listening to your favourite genre or artist, it will release dopamine that will boost your positivity. Music can also calm your nervous system via your hormones, as it helps to ease stress by influencing our biological processes. The tempo of the music you’re listening to can automatically alter your heart rate, blood pressure and breathing, both up and down.

You can also create music of your own as a way of escapism and expression, as you can put all of your feelings into your created piece. This can make you feel a strong association with the music, which can be great for making your mind travel to a new place.