Anxiety can have serious physical and emotional repercussions. Here are a few strategies you can try to manage your symptoms of anxiety. Challenge negative thoughts. If your negative thinking makes you anxious, try to think of other perspectives on the situation. Stay social. People with close friendships tend to experience lower levels of anxiety. Stay physically fit by exercising regularly and getting enough restful sleep, eating healthily, and avoiding drugs and alcohol when possible.
1. Take a Break
Reducing anxiety by taking a step away can help you feel more in control. Such actions could involve either avoiding situations that trigger them or undertaking steps to alter them.
Relaxation techniques or mindfulness practices may also help manage anxious thoughts. Pay attention to your breath, noticing when thoughts drift off track, and gently bringing them back to the present moment. If anxiety is isolating you, make an effort to stay in contact with friends and family as much as possible. Join an anxiety support group online or offline. Avoid substances that increase anxiety, such as caffeine and nicotine.
2. Breathe
Breathing techniques can be effective tools for managing immediate feelings of anxiety. According to one study, researchers told some participants they would receive electric shocks and asked them to practice deep breathing. Either rapid inhale/long exhale or evenly spaced-out breathing techniques were found to have less of an anxiety response than those who did not slow their breaths.
Learning to redirect nervous energy can help ease the symptoms of anxiety, which can be likened to an engine revving up. Try doing a breathing exercise for at least 5-10 minutes daily to ease sporadic stress or stave off panic attacks.
3. Exercise
Exercise can help alleviate anxiety by stimulating the production of feel-good chemicals in the brain, such as when running, doing yoga, or trying out quick guided practices such as Walk Away Stress or SOS Breath Work to relax both mind and body.
Breathing exercises may also help alleviate anxiety symptoms. Try taking five deep, slow breaths through your nose while filling up your lungs fully before slowly exhaling through your mouth for five counts — this may stop hyperventilation and lower heart rates.
Visualization techniques and meditation can also be effective tools for relieving body tension. Try envisioning a soothing scene or practicing progressive muscle relaxation—where you tense and relax different muscle groups at intervals— as ways to help relax your body.
4. Talk to Someone
If a friend or family member suffers from anxiety, be supportive. Listen attentively without making assumptions or passing judgments; don’t make assumptions or judgments yourself; they may not want to talk about it, but continue trying anyway— keep trying!
Encourage Professional Help: Encouraging someone you care about to seek professional assistance is an excellent way to demonstrate that you want them to make progress toward recovery. Doing this gently will show that they matter and that you want them to get better quickly.
Explore their triggers: Understanding what triggers anxiety is an effective way of being more empathetic and supportive. Understanding what makes their heart rate surge or their thoughts race will allow you to create strategies tailored specifically for them.
5. Stop Worrying
If your anxiety symptoms seem difficult to control, consulting a mental health professional could help significantly. Early treatment could greatly reduce symptoms and prevent them from getting worse over time. Many people mistakenly believe their worries serve an essential function—helping them avoid bad things, prepare for issues, or find solutions—when research indicates the opposite: worry usually makes things worse.
Use a different approach to avoid worrying: set aside a specific period (for instance, before bed) when you can allow yourself to be overwhelmed by thoughts — then write them all down! Once the session has concluded, kindly write everything out to prevent it from distracting your day further.
6. Be Creative
Although creative people may be more vulnerable to anxiety, everyone experiences it at some point. What may be surprising, however, is that scientists have established an association between creativity and anxiety.
When anxious, use your imagination to think of something other than future worries. Doing this might help train your brain away from negative patterns and toward more productive ones. Be curious about what triggered your anxiety. Take note of how your body feels before labeling the sensation as anxiety.
7. Listen to Music
Everyone experiences anxiety at some point; however, when the feelings become chronic and lasting, you may need professional assistance. Keep a record of anxiety symptoms to assist yourself and mental health professionals in understanding what causes them. Tracking anxiety symptoms also provides an opportunity to identify ways to relieve them.
Relaxation techniques such as music listening, aromatherapy, or self-massaging may all help. Eating well, exercising regularly, and getting enough rest are also great ways to de-stress, but sometimes more assistance may be required, such as psychotherapy or medication.
8. Eat Healthy
Professional guidance is an integral component of treating anxiety, but lifestyle modifications and coping strategies may also prove helpful. Avoiding processed sugar may reduce symptoms by helping stabilize blood sugar levels and curbing cravings for sweets; alcohol and caffeinated beverages should also be avoided to protect mental health.
Learn the physiology of anxiety and understand how our flight or fight response is inappropriately triggered by benign situations, as this knowledge can help challenge unhelpful, negative thoughts and grounding techniques to connect with physical sensations and take your mind off your worries.
