What Is Anxiety?

Anxiety is simply your body’s way of telling you that there is a threat or danger nearby. Each person’s body may alert them in different ways. All people don’t experience anxiety in the same way or feel threatened by the same situations.

Heading to an interview and you have this uncomfortable feeling in your belly? Walking home with sweaty palms and a worried brow wondering if your parents are home because you have to tell them they are wanted in school for your bad behaviour? Hear your phone ring and your stomach is in knots as you see your bosses name on the screen? We are all familiar with this feeling and all of us experience some level of anxiety in our lives on a daily basis. Some degree of anxiety is ‘normal’, the question is when does it become a problem?

What Causes Anxiety?

There are a number of factors that cause anxiety. Some of them are quickly listed below:

• A genetic predisposition towards anxiety
• Living through trauma or with trauma
• Ongoing stressful life events
• A person’s personality
• Physical problems/disabilities
• Other mental health conditions/problems
• Addictions

Did you know that babies pick up a mother’s emotions while they are in their mother’s wombs! If a mother is good at self-soothing and regulating her emotions like fear, anger, stress/ anxiety the child learns to do the same in-utero. When a mother lives in fear or has a life of consistent anxiety and struggles with the self-regulation of her emotions, the baby learns the same and is born with a higher likelihood of experiencing anxiety as a child and as an adult.

When Does Anxiety Become A Problem?

Do you experience anxiety that incapacitates you? Do you experience stress that is out of proportion to the impact of the event? Some symptoms of anxiousness are mentioned below:

• Not being able to enjoy things fully
• Always worried something bad is going to happen
• A feeling of constant restlessness and inability to just be
• Experiencing difficulty while trying to calm oneself
• Constant racing thoughts everywhere
• Difficulty sleeping
• A feeling of dread and uneasiness

How To Manage Anxiety?

Some of us are fortunate enough to have low levels of anxiety, others are not so lucky and struggle with perpetual anxiousness, PTSD, panic attacks or other anxiety disorders. There is good news for those who are long suffering. There is a solution. There are ways to manage this and heal from experiences and memories that cause anxiety! Allow me to walk you through a quick soothing technique…

1. Start by taking a deep breath in, and breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out a few times while focusing on your breath. Focus on the breath coming in and filling your lungs, focus on the point of contact the breath makes with your nostril as it leaves… Do this a five times.
2. Now with your eyes closed, gently scan your body, from your head going down your neck, back, shoulders, chest, belly, hands, legs and feet check for where you feel the anxiety lives, where do you feel it?
3. Supposed you can identity it lives in your head, or in your belly, take a hand and place it gently on the area you are experiencing anxiety and gently rub and sooth it and calm it – the way you would do a crying child or puppy – talk to it in a reassuring tone, say things like, ” It’s okay, I’ve got you, It’s gonna be alright, I am gonna look after you, you are not alone, we are going to figure this out together”
4. Do this until you feel the anxiety gently dissipate.

In Summary

Reach out to a counsellor or psychotherapist if you feel overwhelmed all the time and if you notice your anxiety gets the better of you. You don’t have to suffer or try and cope alone. There is a better way! At Yellow Brick Counseling we help clients control their anxiety instead of their anxiety controlling them.

Copyright © Yellowbrickcounseling.com | Author: Anugrah Bhagwat