Control Anxiety; Tools to calm your mind
Many times we start to lose control of our emotions. Due to our lives being so busy all the time, our brain begins to stress itself and makes us emotionally unstable, which can result in different mood swings, most of which are strongly related to anxiety and depression.
Anxiety can make it difficult for people to think clearly and address the issues properly. Sometimes the brain can also trigger overthinking, which may cause even further anxiety. This builds up into a viscous cycle, which causes disruption in our daily lives. Trying to suppress the anxiety would only make it worse. But there is a way to reduce or even get rid of anxiety –and here are a few methods to follow!
- Cognitive distance
When one is facing anxiety, the most common thing a brain does is think of the possible negative outcomes of a particular situation, which leads to even greater anxiety. In other words,
the brain tries to predict the worst possible outcome of the given situation. In order to counter that, one must think of the positive possibilities that may happen, and to realize that the negative outcomes are only predictions that may happen, but will not necessarily do so. Try to go over facts and figures to determine the probability of an outcome instead of making guesses yourself.
- Cognitive “diffusion”
During anxiety, it is very easy for one to get lost in his/her own thoughts. This may also be caused by being fused into your own thoughts. This is one of the reasons why you cannot focus on anything but your thoughts. To remove this condition, one may have to think of the thoughts as random data passing through, rather than an important thought. Because anxiety is triggered by negative effects, our brain seems to instinctively overreact to the situation. So instead of just accepting the thoughts as they are, one must decide whether or not to believe them.
- Try to rationalize your thoughts
Instead of just narrow-mindedly being reactive to the thoughts, it is better for one to observe
them carefully. One must classify the thoughts: which ones make him/her feel positive and which ones are negative. Try to observe and understand the negative thoughts carefully and try to think whether or not there is a possible loophole that can nullify the negative thought.
- Go with experience, rather than stories
Instinctively, our mind tries to make an image of our character in our heads, based on past experiences. Since our mind focuses mainly on the negative experiences, and overshadowing the good ones, the stories that our mind makes up about us are not very accurate. Try to think whether it is something that will happen, or something that might happen. Base your thoughts on experiences, rather than stories.
- Label all thoughts
Instead of going through the content of a particular thought, try to label the thoughts as a whole. The labels should depend on the type of dream you are having. For example, a thought in which one is judging a situation as good or bad, it should be labeled as judging. A thought that is labeled as worrying, must contain content that one fears. This helps the brain focus on labeling the thoughts rather than focusing on the content of those thoughts, and then one realize whether or not it is worth for one to be spending time worrying or judging something.
- Stop thinking about the past
Just because something happened before does not necessarily mean that it will happen again. Think of the circumstances that changed since the last occurrence, and how one can stop that from happening again, rather than worrying that whether it would happen again or not. It is important to stop dwelling in the past, otherwise it will only make matters worse.
Although getting rid of anxiety is a long and tedious process, it is pivotal for one to calm his/her
mind in order to move forward, otherwise making progress in life would become very difficult, as it has for many who have failed to overcome their emotional instability. Don’t forget to do yoga and Meditate. These are the 2 basic stress reducing techniques.