Everyone experiences situations that make them anxious from time to time. It’s our body’s natural response to stress.
But for some, anxiety can be debilitating. But it doesn’t have to be.
You can learn coping methods to help ease your anxiety without having to take medication. You can always try these methods to see if they help, but make sure you see a medical professional if you find that your anxiety is unmanageable.
When we become anxious about something, sometimes we start to worry about being anxious.
And when we focus on our anxiety it gets worse.
It can also get worse when we try to stop the anxious thoughts from flooding our minds. But knowing a few mindfulness tricks can help you a great deal.
Here Are 3 Ways To Train Your Brain To Let Go Of Anxiety:
1) Acceptance of The Ways Things Are
One of the main symptoms of anxiety is overthinking. Once we start to overthink, we find ourselves trying to control the abundance of thoughts.
Zen master Shunryu Suzuki has some great advice on how to calm our minds.
“If you want to obtain perfect calmness in your [practice], you should not be bothered by the various images you find in your mind. Let them come and let them go. Then they will be under control,” he says.
Don’t shove aside your thoughts and feelings, try to stop them, or feel bad or guilty for having them. Just casually observe and acknowledge them. Let them be. Accepting your state of anxiety offers a calmness rather than fighting against it.
You don’t have to like or roll over and accept the situation that’s causing you anxiety.
“While acceptance implies that I am fully conscious and aware of how things really are, I need not placidly yield if I perceive detrimental conditions that can be corrected or injustices that can be set right. Acceptance does not mean that I am a doormat,” writes the blog A Double Shot of Recovery.
Accepting the state of your thoughts and feelings at the moment gives you permission to feel what you’re experiencing without creating shame or a feeling of uneasiness. It’s a lot easier to assess your situation and find solutions when you’re calm rather than when you’re anxious.
2) Accept Change
Everything in life changes, it’s one of the fundamental laws of the Universe. Change can be hard to accept when we find comfort in our routines and brain becomes accustomed to the way things are.
You can overcome this by accepting change.
“Without accepting the fact that everything changes, we cannot find perfect composure. But unfortunately, although it is true, it is difficult for us to accept it. Because we cannot accept the truth of transiency, we suffer,” says Suzuki.
When things in our world change it can cause us anxiety. Accepting change when its inevitable greatly decrease our suffering.
Why suffer when there is nothing we can do about the change?
“When you open yourself to the continually changing, impermanent, dynamic nature of your own being and of reality, you increase your capacity to love and care about other people and your capacity to not be afraid. You’re able to keep your eyes open, your heart open, and your mind open,” Buddhist master Peme Chodron says. “And you notice when you get caught up in prejudice, bias, and aggression. You develop an enthusiasm for no longer watering those negative seeds, from now until the day you die. And, you begin to think of your life as offering endless opportunities to start to do things differently.”
3) Focus On Your Senses
When you start becoming overwhelmed, it’s important to focus on your senses such as breathing to help center yourself.
This will help calm you and take away focus from your anxious feelings.
There is something called the 5-4-3-2-1 method that really helps. These steps help you to focus on your senses to become more focused on the present and less lost in your thoughts.
Here are the steps:
- Acknowledge 5 things you can see around your
- Acknowledge 4 things you can touch around you
- Acknowledge 3 things you can hear
- Acknowledge 2 things you can smell
- Acknowledge 1 thing you can taste
Regular practice of these techniques can greatly reduce your anxiety and help you to better cope with it.
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