How To deal with anxiety?
Anxiety is a thought process stored in your long-term memory through extreme emotion or repeated actions and the thought invokes in repose to a particular simulation intuitively. If you really want to know how to deal with anxiety; remember that when anxiety attacks you, bring your attention to the present, practice it, and make it a habit.
Before beginning how to get rid of anxiety, the reader should know what causes anxiety. It is better to know the root cause of a problem before dealing with it.
Here, the article is divided into two sections;
If you are not interested in knowing what causes anxiety, click on section 2 and jump there to find how to deal with anxiety.
What Causes Anxiety
Anxiety is not same as fear, although they have similar characteristics as both represent the expectation of future threat or a past experience.
Basically, due to our practice, our brain invokes a first recall value in response to a particular situation.
So, what is first recall value?
The first recall value is the value that you have memorized consciously or subconsciously, through repeated actions OR extreme emotion; and which triggers first to your mind in response to a particular event or situation.
For example, if I ask you, “Which pizza brand name comes to your mind when somebody asks you to have a pizza?” Recall what comes to your mind.
What is your recall value for pizza brand? Say, for example, it’s Domino’s pizza. But the first recall value may be different for a different person; someone may say its pizza hut.
In the case of anxiety, first recall value is a thought generated due to extreme emotion; the thought may be different for the different situations.
You face anxiety when the bad thought invokes in response to a particular situation.
What is extreme emotion?
Try to recall your childhood incidents, incidents of below 7 years; do you remember everything? You might remember only one to two incidents.
Do you know why you still remember those incidents clearly?
Check whether any extreme emotion of happiness, sorrow, depression or fear is attached to that incident.
As I told you, humans can remember extreme emotion for a longer period of time.
Here are few more examples to recognize the causes of anxiety;
When you go for an interview, do you feel anxious? Do you know why?
You recall subconsciously that something is going to happen badly, I won’t be able to present myself; I’m not confident enough etc. etc. It may happen consciously or subconsciously. The fact is that you are thinking about the future, based on your subconscious recall value for an interview.
Let’s take another example, an anxiety due to your financial stress.
You are doing something else and suddenly you feel anxious due to your financial situation, you lost attention to what you were doing.
At the time, the anxiety of financial stress triggers your mind consciously or subconsciously, and a future or past event started to process in your mind.
The event is painful, but the event is not real, the event doesn’t exist in present, it is the recall value of your past or future.
Most of the people feel anxious after the break-up of a romantic relationship. Depending upon the replacement of the recall value, someone may get rid of the anxiety of break up within a few months or days.
How they get rid of it?
Someone replaced his/her love, i.e. his/her partner or someone may get himself/herself busy in another activity, and it is all about the replacement of recall value.
“Anxiety is intuitive first recall thought revokes in response to a particular situation, and the thought is memorized through extreme emotion or repeated action subconsciously or consciously.”
So, now you have the idea of what is first recall value for anxiety.
If you are unable to get it, read once again and try to understand through above examples or let me know in the comment section.
How to Cope With Anxiety
Here are the few steps you should read, understand, and practice to deal with anxiety;
Identify the Trigger of Anxiety
- Check what thought comes to your mind while you feel anxious
- Understand when you get anxious
- Evaluate under what circumstances you can’t control your anxiety
- List down the triggers of anxiety and follow the next steps
Think the Opposite
When certain thought trigger anxiety, recall the opposite thought.
For example, when you become anxious because of your financial situation, think the opposite.
Start thinking that you can cope with it, you will solve it, it is better to find a solution rather living distracted because of the problem.
Take a Deep Breath
When anxiety attacks you, take a deep breath; in through the nose and out through the mouth.
Do you know why you should take a deep breath?
Taking a deep breath diverts your attention from the anxiety to the breath.
Also, anxiety is a result of abnormal blood circulation throughout your body and brain and the deep breath can stop the abnormality for a while, which in turn effects to calm your mind or body.
Distract the Mind
- Distract your mind from unwanted feelings, unwanted thoughts.
- Divert your attention to something else
- Whenever anxiety attacks you, you must recall that it is an extreme emotion of past or future event. Practice the recalling, practice will make the recalling your habit
Replace the Recall Value
When the thought of anxiety attacks you; identify the thought of anxiety, that comes to your mind during anxiety; think the opposite, practice it, make it a habit and your recall value will be replaced.
Scientist proved that it takes 66 days to make a habit; habit is the automatic action of our brain, automatic action taken by programs stored in our long-term memory, i.e. the subconscious mind.
For example, when you were learning to drive, you have to order the conscious mind to take left, take right, press brake according to the situation.
But when you practice it, it becomes your habit and you don’t need to order through the conscious mind, the program from subconscious mind invokes automatically; try to recall your first day of driving and compare it with current experience.
Engage Your Mind
Our conscious mind needs engagement, it takes rest only when we are sleeping (dreaming-it is state of half-consciousness).
If you don’t give it something to do, the conscious mind will load anything from the subconscious mind (long-term memory) or through bodily sensors.
Make a plan, set goal and do according to priorities to engage your mind.
Practice Mindfulness
Stay focused, live in the present moment, be conscious what is happing inside your mind and in the surrounding; otherwise, external environment or internal thought can trigger unwanted feelings or emotion.
You can also try a beautiful app called Headspace for practicing meditation and mindfulness.
Stay Away from Drugs & Alcohol
Drugs and alcohol give temporary happiness; you can have physical happiness from alcohol and drugs due to temporary spikes in mental activities.
A drinker may feel happy after drinking a few pegs of alcohol; but when he wakes up next morning, he may become anxious, he may need the alcohol again, he will drink again and the loop continues itself.
Find a long-term solution to happiness instead of going after a temporary one.
Avoid Unstructured Pattern of Thinking
What is the unstructured pattern of thinking?
It is the subconscious thinking without your direction, sometimes our mind process different kind thoughts automatically.
Generally, it happens when we try to sleep or stay idle, the thoughts may not be necessary for your goal.
You can avoid it by engaging your mind according to your goal, by letting your mind to process structured pattern of thinking.
Develop Higher Consciousness
We have different dimensions of consciousness; you have to discard the lower one to achieve a higher one.
The happiness, sorrow or anxiety of physical level is temporary; alcohol can bring temporary happiness, lust can also bring temporary happiness, and anger can bring temporary sorrow.
However intellect can bring what you want in your life, you should focus on improving your cognitive skills and cognitive learning abilities to achieve higher consciousness
Have Well-Balanced Diet
Weakness can generate unwanted chemical in your body and can trigger unwanted thought.
Similarly, too much of everything is very bad, too much protein or vitamin will increase the flow of blood or other chemicals and which in turn can generate unwanted thought and feeling.
You should eat healthily, avoid fast foods or junk foods, and eat as simple as possible to purify your body and mind.
Here you have found a few techniques to deal with anxiety; if you still have any query, ask me in the comment section.
You can get rid of anxiety when you take strategic actions and practice it; reading and understanding will not help you to get rid of anxiety, so make a strategic plan and keep practicing.
Ashim, the Founder of MindWiper, loves to learn, share, and educate various dimensions of life skills development. After graduating with an engineering degree, he worked with major ICT industries in India and finally he followed his dream to integrate technology for Cognitive Skills & Life Skills Development.