Anxiety is a natural and common response to the environment. We so often try to avoid it, forget that it exists, and straight-up deny it’s there. This only fuels it more. It lurks under the surface and you are feeling tired, overwhelmed, or unappreciated. That’s when it makes it’s move, that’s when it takes over. This is why having awareness of anxiety is important.
Are you anxious when traveling? Or when you’re at a party and don’t have someone to stay by your side the whole time? Maybe you feel anxious in numerous situations. When you start taking note of these situations you get a better understanding of how to avoid them and essentially, how to cheat anxiety when it is avoidable.
The next time you get an uneasy feeling, notice what is happening. You may feel your heart beating faster, nausea may be starting, or you feel yourself running out of breath. If there isn’t something medically obvious happening, you might be experiencing a buildup of anxiety. Look around, are you nervous of what you are doing? Sometimes it can be because you’re worried about an outcome, how you may look to others, or you might be near a person that always seems to have something negative to say and you anticipate it. These can be referred to as triggers or triggering situations.
Understanding your triggers is important because if you find yourself getting activated and anxious, you can engage in self-soothing activities and coping skills before your anxiety escalates and feels unmanageable. Being able to reflect on moments when you feel anxious is an essential step in both understanding and managing your anxiety more effectively. Use my Anxiety Worksheet to recognize situations where you experience anxiety.
Some helpful coping skills are:
Breathing techniques to calm down. Inhale for 4-seconds then exhale slowly for 8-seconds, repeat until you feel your body relaxing.
Doing something tactile. Coloring books are a great way to shut off your worries while activating your creative outlets.
Ground yourself. Look around you, pick a color, and count all of the things surrounding you of that color.
Don’t be afraid of anxiety. It will naturally occur and when you know what to look out for and how to decrease those negative feelings, you will be in control of your body’s reaction to anxiety.