Staying Calm When You Feel Anxious: When feeling anxious, negative thoughts can seem endlessly repeated; but there are ways to break this cycle and experience greater peace and relaxation.
While the root cause of the anxious needs to be discovered and healed, that process takes time. While you are working on the root cause, there are avenues to divert and distract the mindset from the stress. Some people find that diversion, distraction, thought process disrupters can help them manage their stress. Some examples could be taking a leisurely walk around the block, or listening to relaxing music, or even spending time with their pet!
Here are 7 Helpful Tips for Staying Calm When You Feel Anxious
1. Breathe
Breathing may come naturally to most people, but when feeling anxious it can be helpful to pay more attention to how and when you breathe. Deep and slow breaths help your body stop producing stress hormones and can help bring about feelings of relaxation.
Deep breathing can also help alleviate anxiety by soothing your sympathetic nervous system, which controls your fight-or-flight response. Try three-3-3 breathing, this is where you breathe in for three seconds, hold for three seconds and exhale three times before inhaling again. Do three rounds of this.
Find a healthy avenue to focus on that draws your attention away from anxiety-inducing thoughts.
2. Meditate
Meditation helps calm the nervous system and brings appreciation to life as it unfolds right here in the now, while at the same time reducing stress hormones that contribute to anxiety, and that promote symptoms of depression, and increase blood pressure.
Meditation helps increase self-awareness, helping you identify and diminish unhelpful thoughts that cause anxiety. Furthermore, it increases gray matter in parts of the brain responsible for learning, memory and emotions regulation.
Start small if you are new to meditation: slowly build up to a few minutes per day of practice, perhaps with guided sessions or with relaxing music, nature sounds, and breathing exercises.
You can utilize the free Sounds of Nature videos that I have posted on my YouTube channel to help bring calmness and peacefulness to your body / mind / spirit / soul. Click here to go to the channel. Be sure to subscribe to the channel so that you are in the loop when I post additional helpful videos!
3. Exercise
As life continues to move at a rapid pace, stress and anxiety become ever more apparent. From bills and work deadlines to family matters and health concerns, it can be easy to feel helpless in this fast-paced environment. It is understandable to have times where you feel overpowered.
Exercise can help improve your mood and ease anxiety. Studies have demonstrated that even 30 minutes of light physical activity can significantly decrease anxiety levels.
If you find yourself feeling anxious, try going for a walk, or taking a swim, or riding your bike, or turning up the music and dancing in the Livingroom! lol … There’s no set parameter here – find a movement / activity that you enjoy!
Now that we have looked at three Helpful Tips for Staying Calm When You feel Anxious, let’s look at a few more!
4. Talk to a Friend
Shared burdens can be divided in half by talking to a trusted friend about your anxiety, and asking them for support in challenging unhelpful thoughts.
Sometimes describing your anxious thoughts out loud can help release the thoughts and create space for healthy thoughts to enter.
If you are experiencing severe anxiety, you may want to seek professional assistance, speak with your physician or counselor for resources and referrals.
5. Listen to Music
When you feel anxious, your mind can often wander to imagined worst-case scenarios or revisit past events that caused discomfort. Your heartbeat may quicken and physical symptoms like tension or headache may arise.
Listening to soothing music can help relieve tension and decrease stress levels. Furthermore, matching the emotional tone of your tunes to your emotions may further ease the affective power that they have.
If you find yourself feeling overwhelmed, try counting five things around you such as pictures on a wall or anything outside. Laughter may also help relieve tension by diverting thoughts away from the stress while decreasing cortisol production.
6. Take a Bath
A warm bath / shower can be very comforting when experiencing apprehension and anxiety; the warmth of the water can actually help alleviate some of the physical symptoms of anxiousness like a racing heart and breathlessness.
Heat activates the parasympathetic nervous system which helps to relax both body and mind. This may also ease tension-induced muscle pain as well as anxiety-caused tension in your muscles.
Try aromatherapy products containing essential oils in your shower or bath. For relaxing effects, try dimming the lights and playing relaxing music to create a soothing environment during your bath time routine.
And one more Helpful Tip for Staying Calm When You Feel Anxious!
7. Enjoy the Everyday Simple Little Things
Take a moment to bring awareness to the simple everyday little things that we often overlook like the sun rising / setting, the beauty of the moon at night and the stars shining brightly through the skyline. The wind gently cooling the day, the rain watering the vegetation. The food in our tummy, the roof over our head, the clothes on our body. There’s sooo much goodness in which to divert our thoughts.
At times, it is perfectly natural to experience anxiety; however, when anxiety interferes with daily activities or becomes overwhelming – it’s time to seek professional help. Give yourself permission to seek avenues that are the best fit for your own personal wellbeing!
Be sure to check out the Blog Post – Calmness by Design for more amazing avenues to bring calmness to your life!
Hugs and love always –
