Anxiety is one of many ‘modern diseases’ that can seriously affect your quality of life and general wellbeing. One way to understand this endless worrying and busyness of the mind is to see it as a distorted version of the ‘fight or flight’ reflex so necessary to animals, or to humans in their primitive form. We have virtually no immediate worries for survival these days, but perhaps our bodily system still thinks we do, and throws out ‘worry energy’ accordingly. Another way to look at it is that the overload of images and choices so present in modern life proves too much for the mind and prevents it from being still. Yet another theory with strong scientific support is that anxiety is hormonally conditioned with a strong link to oestrogen, appearing in twice as many women than men.
Whatever the cause of anxiety, we can say for sure that it’s a condition with a strong impact on wellness and at its worse extent damage to mental health. Those who find that worrying seriously disrupts their life should consult a professional without delay. Those who don’t yet suffer as seriously and want to try to manage their condition before it runs away with them might find the following strategies useful:
Plan your worrying time – allocate a worrying period for yourself every day. Put aside fifteen minutes or so at a regular time and postpone all trivial worries until then. This will help you to push them aside in the meantime as you’ll know there is time for full indulgence later. Be strict with yourself and do not go even a minute over your allotted time. The practice of this kind of self-control will help you to build valuable mental habits to cope with your stress, and will also help you to keep anxiety out of the main thrust of your life.
Think logically and practically – when you are suffering an anxiety period (perhaps during your allotted worry time!) keep a notepad and pen with you. List down all your worries and work out various outcomes and different steps you would take in response to those outcomes. When you have things clearly mapped out on paper, you’ll find that you rest easier, having already reached a solution for all those taunting problems.
Practice yoga and meditation – the ultimate wellness solutions for body and mind, the practice of physical yoga will help your sense of physical relaxation and will ease you into meditation by starting with concentrated movement. When you feel ready to start a sitting meditation practice, you will find that the benefits really start flooding in. After all, meditation is the practice of letting go of your thoughts, however demanding they may be. Practicing these techniques will build the mental muscle you need to overcome anxiety.
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