Many of us experience periods of feeling stressed or anxious. For some, this feeling can be chronic leaving you with sense of feeling completely overwhelmed. It may even lead to panic attacks. First of all, some definitions.
What is anxiety? Anxiety is a persistent feeling, often driven by thoughts of worry about the future. It is a natural human response to threat. So why do you experience it when you have to talk to your boss? Or have to call your cell phone company? Or just leave your house in the morning? The answer is that our threat response becomes tangled up in our daily lives. Not only is it possible that our lives would be threatened in some way, but our image, our reputation, or our shame might also be a target. It becomes incredibly overwhelming when we have to protect every facet of our being.
What is panic? Panic is a sudden surge of overwhelming anxiety that results in shortness of breath, shaking, sweating, heart palpitations, chest discomfort or pain, or feeling like you’ve disconnected from reality. This is not a full list of criteria, but if you’ve had 4 or more of these symptoms, you may have had a panic attack.
So what should you do to get a handle on this situation? Below, I provide 5 brief recommendations for helping to manage anxiety.
- Learn to do square breathing or box breathing. Square breathing is a practice of paying attention to your breath through sensation and counting. The purpose is to keep you in the present moment rather than letting yourself chase the anxious thoughts in your mind about the future or the past. One of the things I love about square breathing is that you can do it anywhere and nobody even has to know. To square breath, take in a breath to the count of 4, hold that breath for a count of 4, exhale for a count of 4, and then hold the exhale for a count of 4. Then repeat for 5 or more rounds. Practice this several times throughout the day.
- Incorporate other mindfulness techniques. Mindfulness is a type of meditation that focuses our minds on the present moment. The whole point of this is to keep our minds and emotions grounded rather than letting intrusive thoughts carry us into a state of anxiety or panic. There are many forms of mindfulness practice and I suspect you’ve tried some of them before. Besides square breathing, there are practices for relaxation through body scans, practices to improve your outlook of the world, practices that promote imagination as a way of rewriting your perspective, and even journaling exercises. I highly recommend the Insight Timer phone app which can be found for either Apple or Android users. But there are a million out there. The important thing is to find what works for you and start using it.
- Gain a birds-eye view of your thoughts. Imagine you are watching a train go by. Each train car represents your thoughts. Some are good and some aren’t so good. But they’re all happening without your control. What if you had the opportunity to float above them and “watch” your thoughts go by? With enough practice, this is possible and can give you some much needed emotional separation from the thought that’s driving you into anxiety. Sit and practice this a couple times a day to see what happens. How long can you watch your thoughts go by before you find yourself “riding” the train?
- If there is something specific that is making you anxious, repeat the word out loud over and over again until it sounds ridiculous. Why would I do that, Aaron? The answer is the same as the goal of #3. If we can separate the emotion from the thought that keeps intruding into our minds, we will have much better control over our response to it. If, for example, you are afraid of snakes, then before you walk into a field start saying it out loud. Snakes. Snakes snakes snakes snakes snakes snakes snakes. (Does it sounds stupid yet? If not, keep going). Snakes snakes snakes snakes snakes snakes snakes snakes.
- The last, and yes, probably the most obvious, recommendation I will give is to go see a licensed therapist. While the above practices might be helpful, there are additional ways therapists from various orientations can be helpful to you. From my perspective, there are very likely processes going on inside of you of which you may not even be aware. A skilled therapist can assist you in finding your way and using the various practices above as well as many others.
If you begin to incorporate some of these practices into your daily routine, I believe you will start to see results in how you can manage your emotional, physical, and perhaps even spiritual response to the things that make you anxious. If you would like to talk more with me about your anxiety, please reach out to me at aaron@digcounseling.com or you can go here to schedule a free consultation. (Please note, I am only licensed in Virginia to provide therapy services.)