Overcome Anxiety with These Specific Skills

August 23, 2024 by Ryan Peacock Anxiety and Stress 0 comments

How to Work Through It When It’s Not Working for You

You may not believe it, but anxiety isn’t always bad. It acts as a warning system and sends alerts when there is danger. It helps us identify risks and react to emergencies. Anxiety helps us prepare, navigate uncertainty, anticipate obstacles, and identify possible solutions.

This all sounds great – but then why does it also make us feel so bad?

Anxiety is part of a fight-or-flight response, preparing our bodies to react to danger. If you were being chased by a tiger, your anxious fight-or-flight response would kick in to keep you safe. The problem lies when our brain perceives danger that is not life threatening, such as a job interview, the first day of school, or being in a new environment.

The good news is you can learn to respond to anxiety in a way that is more supportive and productive, while decreasing your anxious thoughts and feelings, and developing strategies to cope.

Here are 3 specific tools to help you work through anxiety when it’s not working for you:

Anxiety challenging skills

When you’re not being chased by a tiger

Engaging in balanced thinking, considering multiple outcomes, and staying connected to your body using progressive muscle relaxation are just some of the tools you can use to work through anxiety when it’s not working for you.

Engage in balanced thinking

Anxiety often propels us into all-or-nothing thinking. This extreme position leaves us feeling hopeless and stuck, unable to create change. We’ve all been there.

“There is no solution to this problem.”

“If I don’t get this right, I’m a failure.”

“They didn’t agree with me. They are against me.”

Next time these thoughts pop up, take back control by reframing them in a more balanced way:

“There are multiple answers to this situation. If I choose to try something new it does not mean it is wrong.”

“I can make mistakes and still succeed.”

“Just because I disagree with someone and we have differences, doesn’t mean they do not like me as a person.”

Consider multiple outcomes

Another way to get unstuck is to think:

“What’s the best case, worst case, and most realistic case scenario?”

With school approaching, lets talk about the possibilities for the first day.

BEST case: Today is going to be the best day ever. I’ll see all my friends, we will have all the same classes, and my teachers will be super cool, creative, and funny.

WORST case: Today is going to be the worst day of my life. No one will talk to me, my teachers will assign tons of homework the first day, and I’ll get lost in this new building.

REALISTIC case: I have teachers who care about my learning, although they may have different teaching styles. I might know someone in my class or I’ll meet new people and make new friends. I might not know where to go, but I can ask for help from a teacher or student and make it to class without getting lost.

Considering all 3 options slows down our thinking, gets all parts of our brain working together, and helps us gain control over anxiety and not stay stuck.

Progressive Muscle Relaxation

Using our bodies is an effective way to reduce anxious feelings and get unstuck.

Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR) is a structured exercise where you tense then release certain areas of the body, one at a time, starting from the top of your head and moving down. Being mindful of the release and noticing the changes in your body increases your closeness to calmness and relaxation.

PMR increases your mind-body connection, slows down the strong emotional and reactive parts of the brain, and slows down breathing. All of these outcomes are effective and proven in gaining control over anxiety.

In addition to these three skills, Veronica works with clients to utilize logic to identify unhelpful thoughts and work to disprove them and practice in-the-moment strategies to cope with anxiety that you can use outside of sessions.

Veronica is available now to support you and help you take control over your anxiety when it’s not working for you.

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