Anxiety – what you can do about it

Regarding, this post, Anxiety – what you can do about it, please note the following:

Firstly, I would like to say that I am not medically qualified, and that this advice is not instead of seeking medical advice. The article is based on what I have learnt in my Mental Health Awareness and Mental Health First Aider training. You may also wish to check out the advice from Mind in relation to Anxiety. Please click Mind here.

Secondly, it is also based on what I have observed and learnt through my years of training as a coach and from life in general.

Anxiety is usually caused by us fearing something. Different people are fearful of different things. What is an acceptable level of stress to someone can cause anxiety in someone else. We all need some stress in our lives to make us function. However, we do not want to live our lives in a state of anxiety if we can avoid this.  How anxious we feel about something can depend on our overall well-being at a given time and what else we are dealing with.  For example, what may not cause us any problems on one day may make us feel very anxious on another day. This may be if we are feeling low due to something else, feeling physically unwell or we have lots going on in our lives.

There are some things that I have noticed in people that are feeling anxious. Some of these may be true for you if you are feeling anxious yourself:

• If you dwell on what you are feeling anxious about, it is likely to worsen your anxiety
• If you have little to occupy you or to help you take your mind off what you are feeling anxious about the feeling of anxiety may increase.
• Negative thinking and low self-esteem will likely make your anxiety worse.
• If you feel lonely, you may tend to worry more, and this may create anxiety.

The above are all things that I have noticed among both myself in the past and in other people. Some of these people are clients that I meet in the course of my work.

So, we have established that it is easy to make your anxiety worse.  If it is easy for us to make it worse, we should be able to do things that can help to lessen it possibly.  I am not talking about diagnosed medical conditions here where people have anxiety as a symptom – although we often can help those to some degree too.

Things that can help us manage our anxiety more effectively include the following:

• Trying not to focus too much on the anxiety. Practising mindfulness, doing exercise and other things that we like to do may help with this
• Trying to avoid dwelling on feeling anxious (although a lot easier said than done, I admit).  If we notice that we are making our anxiety worse by worrying about it, we need to do things that will help take our mind off this.  Doing charitable works for others may sometimes help us to feel better about ourselves as we will be focusing on other people and not ourselves.
• We need to notice the negative things that we are telling ourselves and try to re-frame what we are saying.  What is the point in exacerbating our anxiety?  Although there is little point in doing this it is a practice that many of us do at some point, some more than others.
• Although many of us live alone, that does not mean that we need to be lonely.  By getting out and meeting others, if we can and by utilising social media channels and the internet wisely we can engage in meaningful social interaction – there are many opportunities available these days for people to be able to meet up with other like-minded people and lots of groups available that we can join.

So, as you can see there is plenty you can do to help yourself.  If you feel you need more support, you may be interested in some of the following services that JL Consultancy can offer you:

• Life Coaching
• Help with Goal setting
• Meetup groups to get you out and about
• Personal Development Programmes to help you train your mind to serve you in a more positive way
• Help with Weight-loss if you feel that that is a cause for concern
• If you would like to speak to Julie on a one-to-one basis, please ring or text the following number to book a free consultation and start taking action now to improve your life.  What are you waiting for?

07804 531403

You may wish to check out my other blogs relating to mental health