Anxiety Self Help

Anxiety is a state of deep fear, worry and tension. You feel apprehensive and expect that something bad is going to happen.

A certain amount of concern is normal for you to function, to increase your awareness and find solutions to your problems. It gives you the early warnings. But feeling extremely anxious can hinder you from functioning effectively, interfere with your daily activities and routines and wreck your life.

Your foreboding thoughts and nervousness will make you become paranoid, suspicious and doubtful. Your irrationality can develop into a phobia. What it shows is that you lack the confidence to handle problems and crisis in your life and also the absence of faith that things will work out.

Too many things to handle.

Stress at work like meeting datelines can make you feel overwhelmed. Inability to cope and adjust to the work environment and people can drain your energy. Divorce and break ups can affect you emotionally. Having to live with someone with terminal illness is frightening. Death, loss, grief, sadness and disappointments can cause the anxiety and stress in your life.

Believing that you are "sick" or "broken".

You may have been told that you are suffering from "generalized anxiety disorder," "obsessive compulsive disorder" or whatever else, and you believe it. When you accept the label you create a corresponding emotion, thoughts and images.

Resentments and unresolved issues.

Resentment or unresolved issues and guilt that remain will show up as you move on in your life. Your worries about your future based on the associations with your past experiences are causing your trepidations.

The environment you live in.

The environment you are living in influences what you do and how you feel. Living with abusive and having to deal with difficult people can affect your thoughts and cause unhappiness.

Inability to enjoy being alone.

When you are not able to cope and deal with anxiety, you will not enjoy your solitude. Instead you use the time and space to imagine more or your fears and worries. Your world inside your head is causing your fearful thoughts. You will tend to act on the outside in terms of how you feel inside.

Here are more reasons and causes for feeling anxious, fearful and stressful:

1. Unemployment
   
   
2. Relationship problems
   
   
3. Afraid of being judged and criticized
   
   
4. Inability to socialize
   
   
5. Death and dying
   
   
6. Old age
   
   
7. Illness
   
   
8. Losing memory
   
   
9. Fear of public speaking
   
   
10. Impotency
    
    
11. Heights
    
    
12. Intimacy
    
    
13. Being alone and facing loneliness
    
    
14. Fear of success
    
    
15. Fear of failure
    
    
16. Taking a test

1. Sick in the stomach
   
   
2. Heart beat speeds and pounds faster
   
   
3. Palms sweaty
   
   
4. Can't speak - lump in the throat
   
   
5. Restless
   
   
6. Spaced out or lack of concentration
   
   
7. Losing sense of self
   
   
8. Out of body sensations
   
   
9. Chest pains
   
   
10. Body cramps
    
    
11. Mind racing
    
    
12. Cold feet
    
    
13. Trembling

Find out what is the cause of your stress and concerns.

Is your deep and old hurt disguising itself as your fear? Were you humiliated once and afraid that you might have to go through it again? Observe your behavior and feelings throughout. Knowing the cause is the beginning in finding the remedy. Emotional freedom technique or the tapping solution is a self help technique that may work for you.

Write down your feelings, thoughts and fears.

When you write down your thoughts or your worries and fears, you will notice the patterns. There is always a trigger to how you feel and behave. Knowing the triggers and patterns will help you avoid, ignore or overcome them.

Rebuild your confidence and self esteem.

Identify your strengths, weakness, fears and skills. Rebuild your self confidence, self esteem and self love. Your nervousness or worries about your future has a lot to do with your lack of self confidence and your self esteem. At the same time start forgiving yourself for your idiosyncrasies. Forgive others who have hurt you intentionally or without their knowledge.

Knowing what you want.

It is very important that you know what it is that you want to become and have in your life. Setting goals will motivate you to look to a better future. Life just does not happen. You have to make it happen.

Expect good things to happen because it will influence your behavior. Your moods will affect your physiology and the actions that you will take. Don't expect that your worries and fears will just go away. Consider your options and take positive actions.

Meditate and relax.

There are several relaxation styles and techniques. The easiest way to meditate is to focus on your breathing. Each time you inhale and exhale your body and mind will become more relaxed and quiet. Meditation and relaxation change your brainwave patterns and put you in a state where your mind is receptive to positive affirmations.

Click on this link to try the Silva Method to reach deep levels of meditation fast and easy. This guided hypnosis and meditation tool is powerful. It helps you enter a calm and relaxed frame of mind. You can use it to retrain and reprogram your mind.

Learn how to use your brain effectively.

What do you feel when you say you have "cold feet"? You will feel numb and that will affect you emotionally and you will react to it physically. You need to change the representation that you are making to describe your thoughts. The belief that you are sick or broken will give you the feeling of helplessness and hopelessness.

Your brain needs direction. If you don't give it something to do it will just go on running the same way and you will produce the same results. Force yourself to change your state of mind from thinking of worry thoughts to that of hope and faith. Changing your mind will change your beliefs about what you can or cannot do. Stop yourself from repeatedly picturing your failures and apprehensions.

You have control in running your brain. You can instruct your brain to give you what you want to experience. The brain will do its work and take your orders. Using your brain effectively will allow you to disassociate yourself from the pictures of self consciousness and produces change.

Visualize your success.

Use your imagination to overcome your anxieties and fears. You can visualize success in your mind. Then test its effectiveness in your outer world by going for it. Face up with what you were afraid to do or feel and push yourself. Pretend that you can do it. Focus on your strengths. Think hard of what you want to achieve.

Try the Mind Movies, a subliminal picture and text tool, where you can make your own movie and include all your desirable traits in it.

Appreciate the present.

Do you realize that if you keep worrying about the future and thinking that something bad is always going to happen, you miss the present? You are forever looking ahead but at the wrong direction. Snap out of it. Look at today. Live one day at a time.

Take care of your health.

Certain food and herbs can suppress your feelings of hopelessness. Go for natural herbs and avoid the medications. Exercise will help you release your built up stress. A combination of deep breathing, your diet and exercise will give you more energy, put you in a more relaxed state and the ability to enjoy more life and living.

Seek professional help.

If your anxiety attacks are severe, seek professional help.

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