All too often people are stressed because they have so much on their plate, and that frequently leads to feelings of anxiety. If you are anxious for no apparent reason, there are a number of things to do that can help you feel better. The following tips offer a number of helpful tips to help you reduce the amount of stress and anxiety you are dealing with.
Control Your Thoughts
Anxiety often produces run away thought racing through your head. When this happens, you must take a time out from whatever you are doing and focus on turning off these out of control thoughts. Even the act of trying to control them will have a positive effect. In time, and with practice, you will learn how to exercise more and more control over what you are thinking.
By all means use techniques to help you. Some of the best are deep breathing exercises, listening to music, or mental exercises. Whatever works best for you do is less important than the results. Taking a time out and focusing on something else will help you get through the immediate crisis and restore some much needed calm.
The goal is nothing less than to change the way you think. Too much unwanted negative thinking leads directly to being both anxious and depressed. Rather than thinking about the worst that may happen, these techniques try to change your thinking process into something that is positive. Once the negative thinking is replaced with some positive outlook, anxiousness and depression have no place to stay.
Share Your Feelings, Don’t Keep Them Bottled Up
Sharing does not have to be with a professional counselor. Frequently, simply writing down your thoughts in a journal or diary is all that’s needed to begin to relieve the pressure.
If you have access or the means to make use of a professional counselor by all means take advantage of it. Bouncing your thoughts off another person who is trained to help is a great relief.
Be selective about sharing too much with friends and family. While you want to share some of what you are going through, you don’t want to overwhelm them either. Think about what you want to share and how it may affect someone else.
Nutrition Plays A Big Role
Your body needs a balance diet rich in vitamins and nutrients to work at its best and that goes for your mind too. Making a balanced diet a daily priority has many, many benefits, both mentally as well as physically. Cut down on red meat, increase fruits and vegetables, and stay hydrated with water; you will feel a lot better.
Stay Engaged With Life
It can be very tempting, but don’t retreat from the world. Keep yourself busy and engaged with what is going on around you. Withdrawing leaves way too much time to think about all the bad stuff while keeping busy keeps you focused on the task at hand. My Grandmother used to say “an idle mind is the devil’s playground”. Stay active!
Being anxious and/or depressed is among the most unpleasant of all emotional states. In their worst forms professional help is almost always required to alleviate them. But, if the anxiety and/or depression are not that crippling, there are steps you can take to help yourself feel better and, hopefully, the ones described here will be of help.