If you suffer from Anxiety, you will know that it can be a debilitating and frightening experience. Learning to cope with it when it rears its ugly head is a skill that can take many years to accomplish but learning tips and strategies to ward off anxiety is a key component to managing it. It is often helpful to seek counseling from a therapist just like the ones from the anxiety counseling services who can provide support and assistance.
Often anxiety can be triggered by the smallest of events, perhaps it is chronic as in social anxiety or general anxiety but it is also often an unidentified precursor to anger. Anger is the emotion you experience directly but like a spark that fuels a fire, it is really the fear based thought that hides behind anger and fuels it into rage. Your job is to get behind the anger to the fear and discover what it is that is acting as that spark.
There are many skills you can cultivate: One is learn how to firstly identify your fearful thoughts, and then to flip it to weigh the evidence on how accurate it really is, and finally to create and proliferate an alternative or balanced thinking style.
Learning to recognize the ways your thinking styles may be working against you is another method to combat anxiety. To soothe or decrease your nervousness you may try distracting yourself through exercise, gardening, self relaxation skills, meditation, mindfulness, singing, playing an instrument, or participating in creative recreational activities. Creating a relaxing and peaceful environment is also a strategy to reduce anxiety. Some people like to listen to nature, the sound of water, a fountain, or whatever you personally prefer.
Your Mother’s tried and true advice is still good – drink chamomile or passionflower tea while the complimentary therapies such as massage, acupuncture, aromatherapy have all been demonstrated to reduce anxiety and stress. Learning to manage your anxiety may need practicing a variety of techniques until you discover which ones work for you through trial and error. If you would like to discover alternative ways of coping and help to harness your thoughts, contact Julia for a consultation. Julia Sorensen is studying towards a Doctorate in Psychology and holds specialist certificates in Cognitive Therapy. Julia is the author of “Helping Children Transform Loss, An Expressive Workbook” to be released in 2007 by Jessica Kingsley Publishers.