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Anxiety and stress
What is anxiety?
What is stress?
Anxiety is one of the most frequent emotions we feel in our lives. It comes when we feel a threat, both external or/and internal. Some people characterize it as an overwhelming feeling that seems to invade us without warning. Among the most common physical symptoms are tachycardia, tension, sweating, nervousness, hyperventilation, dizziness, nausea, tremors, pressure in the chest, weakness in some parts of the body and feelings of shortness of breath and lump in the throat or stomach. Among the psychological symptoms people often name fear, irrational and dysfunctional thoughts, intrusive and obsessive ideas, ruminations, feeling alert, agitation, nervousness and feeling of loss of control, Besides, there are certain behavioral responses such as avoidance, escape, or struggle.
Anxiety is a common experience shared by many people. There are no people who have not had anxiety. Different thoughts or situations, such as exams, wedding, divorce, social interactions, or public speaking, can produce anxiety. It is normal to deal with anxiety and resolve the situation that causes it effectively so that it does not rise in level and is not chronic. However, not everyone knows how to do it. Some people are anchored in their dysfunctional thoughts, threatening situations or avoidance behaviors which increases and maintains anxiety entering a vicious circle. Having anxiety for a long time often does not allow us to prove that the consequences of a dreaded situation never come or that the thoughts we have are irrational and have neither basis nor logic. Although anxiety can sometimes seem to become uncontrollable, it is important to remember that there are tools and strategies to deal with it.
Stress is a physical and emotional response we experience when faced with challenging or demanding situations. It is a natural reaction of the body of tension and concern when we consider that a complicated situation demands many resources, that is, we are not able to face external demands.
Anxiety is not the same as stress. The core of stress is worry and the core of anxiety is fear. People with anxiety often anticipate catastrophic and negative situations. Anxiety is more serious than stress but it is not always longer in time. In this case it is necessary to take into account the type of stressor, for example, lack of money to buy food or suffer from a serious illness can cause stress over a longer or shorter period of time. However, if we find a well-paid job or cure the serious illness, stress usually goes away. Worry about stress is focused on the specific problem we have. So it depends on a stressor or external stimulus. Anxiety is generated by a perception of a potential threat. Worries in anxiety are recurring that take up a lot of time and often there is no specific external stimulus. However, the feelings we experience during stress and anxiety can be very similar.
If anxiety is not addressed, over time, we may develop anxiety disorders. Within them you can find different problems, for example:
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Acute stress
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Anxiety attacks
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Seizures and panic disorder
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Obsessive-compulsive disorder
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Post-traumatic stress disorder
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Generalized anxiety disorder
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Hypochondria (Illness anxiety disorder)
At the moment, more scientific support to treat anxiety disorders have Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, relaxation techniques and mindfulness. In addition, Metacognitive Therapy and Systemic Therapies are often used, giving good results.
It is important not only to treat symptoms, but also to address the underlying causes of anxiety and stress. The therapist helps you in this process of identifying the causes, guides you in the process of change and provides you with tools to treat anxiety. There are many techniques and strategies but they are not universal, that is, some that work to someone, may be less useful for others. Below I detail some techniques that seem to me quite good to combat anxiety.
Techniques and strategies for anxiety
1. Diaphragmatic deep breathing
It is an easy technique to perform almost anywhere. Its simplicity does not take away the different benefits it has: it increases the activity of the parasympathetic nervous system causing the sensation of calm, reduces the superficial breathing that appears during anxiety and crisis, lower the amount of oxygen, we focus on breathing in the present moment and train divided attention. The steps are as follows:
1. Find a quiet place if possible.
2. Sit or lie down comfortably.
3. Place one hand on your abdomen and the other on your chest.
4. Breathe in the air slowly through the nose, feeling your belly move and not your chest. Hold the air for a couple of seconds and then breathe out the air through your mouth. Pause for a couple of seconds and start the new cycle. You have to find a comfortable formula for yourself, for example, 4-2-4-2, that is to say, you breathe in the air for 4 seconds, you pause for 2 seconds, you breathe out the air for 4 seconds and you make another pause for 2 seconds. It can be 4-2-5-3, 5-3-5-3, 4-7-8-2 or any other rhythm as it is very individual.
5. As you breathe, focus on the movement of your belly and imagine how the air enters and leaves.
It is best to do this technique when anxiety symptoms appear and before going to bed. Like any other technique it takes some effort and time to train. You can play relaxing music if you like. Do this exercise 2-3 times a day for 5-10 minutes.
2. Reducing oxygen and increasing carbon dioxide
When we have anxiety, we often start breathing more superficially and faster. Too much oxygen enters in the lungs that in large amounts can cause quite unpleasant symptoms such as dizziness, sweating, blurred vision and tachycardia, among others. Reducing the amount of oxygen helps decrease these symptoms. There are different techniques:
1. Breathe for a few minutes in a paper bag. In movies sometimes this technique is applied. It helps in situations when a person has hyperventilation, an anxiety or a panic attack.
2. Perform diaphragmatic breathing of the previous exercise but increasing the pauses.
3. Endure a time without breathing. It helps very well to increase the level of carbon dioxide in the blood.
4. Breathe through a straw or any very narrow tube.
3. Stimuli competition and distracting tasks
People who have anxiety can spend a lot of time ruminating and thinking about the same thing. We seem to be looking for a solution and preventing something catastrophic, but we’re not. Some people assume that thoughts control our lives. It’s not right either. It’s often just a matter of attention. Some stimuli are more salient than others. For example, although we are ruminating submerged in our thoughts, worries and fears, if someone calls us or something falls from the roof to the ground, our attention suddenly changes. These thoughts and concerns no longer exist. Therefore, it is important to find some stimuli more salient than concerns.
One of the most salient stimuli for our body is pain. When there is a threat to our integrity or health, the focus is on these stimuli. It is important to care for our survival. Moreover, we pay more attention to stronger pain than to less severe pain if we have them at the same time. Clear example we have when we see someone on the floor having a panic attack and we give a host or we throw water in his/her face. The attack goes away pretty fast.
Pain techniques are now not used much officially in practice, except in certain cases, for ethical reasons. Besides, they cannot be used in any case if there are self-destructive, self-injurious or suicidal thoughts or behaviors. Everyone has to look for their own techniques that work. Examples of some of them: stretch a rubber band on the wrist and release it, bite a finger or pinch a part of the body, Some people squeeze very hard with 2 nails the earlobe to prevent an anxiety or panic attack. Stimuli do not necessarily have to be painful but they do have to be salient in order to compete with symptoms of anxiety and panic.
Distracting tasks are related to stimulus competition. It is simply a shift of focus from one stimulus (thought or sensation) to another. The idea is that we have an attentional filter which limits the amount of information we can process. For example, you can’t listen to 3 different people who are some distance away from you at the same time without losing some information. You also can’t see 2 objects that are at some distance from each other at once. The same happens with thoughts that cause anxiety. If you occupy your mind with something interesting, relevant or difficult, there will be no room for thought. Everyone has to find their useful distracting tasks. Examples of the most effective distracting tasks:
- mental calculation. Subtract every time 7 of 100 until you reach 0. Change the rule every time. It is a very competitive task;
- focus on something concrete around. What color do people have around them? How many green objects do I see next to me? What do these 2 people talk about? This task is related to the "Here and now" (technique N10);
- competitive activity. Such as singing (loud or not), reading a poem or writing;
- audiovisual media. You should always have a list saved on your phone, computer or a platform of songs and videos that are very relevant. For example, videos that make you laugh, songs that make you think or motivate you for something. There are also lots of entertaining mobile games and mobile phone is almost always with you;
- other mental activities such as puzzles or crosswords.
4. Here and now
The "Here and now" consists of activating all your senses to pay attention to the stimuli that are around. It is not a difficult technique but it takes time to make it work. It helps us to change the attention from our thoughts or sensations to external stimuli. As you have to pay attention to other stimuli, the anxiety will fade and it will not be so outgoing. This technique is very related to the Attentional Training of Metacognitive Therapy. There is no fixed guideline of how to perform the exercise. I leave some examples below, from them you can go varying the forms. If you see that during the exercise you return to your thoughts, continue with the exercise. I advise you to practice it in different contexts (home, work, street or restaurant) a few times a day for about 10 minutes
1. Sight: describe the objects that are around you (their name, shape or color). Often we are in a place every day but we could not remember what objects are around us or we pass by a store every day without knowing its name or what is being sold there. When walking down the street, look at shop windows, advertising or products. In a park, look at what trees there are, how many colors you can distinguish, what shape the benches and objects have around them you, etc.
2. Hearing: try to pay attention to different auditory stimuli (voices, cars, microwaves, music, children's screams, birds, a fight, rain, waves, etc.).
3. Touch: What texture does the chair I am sitting on have? Can I feel the sole of the shoe? Do I like the way the clothes I wear make me feel? Does it squeeze me anywhere? Do my hands feel moist? Do I like the feeling of touching my skin after applying a cream?
4. Taste: What taste do I have in my mouth? Do I like it? How is the rice I'm eating? Does it remind me of something? I'm going to try this juice and analyze its flavor.
5. Smell: Analyze each of the smells that you can detect and where they can come from (freshly baked bread, smoke, perfume, garbage, etc.).
5. Stimulus control (postpone your worries)
Pick a specific place and time during the day when you are free. It’s best not to choose the hours before going to bed. Define the duration so you can worry about all the topics that usually worry you. When you notice that you are worrying, postpone the worry to the predetermined time. If today’s worry time is over, you postpone all your worries for tomorrow and continue doing the tasks or activities you are doing. When the period to worry comes, you are not obliged to do so for the entire stipulated time. However, if you didn’t have enough time to worry about everything or other concerns come up later, you postpone them to the next day at the same time. If you can apply the problem solving strategy during this period, it would be much better. Stimulus control helps you gain some control over your worries. Also, many people feel anxious about trying to suppress their thoughts or emotions and not being able to get it. This technique does not suppress them, but reduces the amount of time you spend on your worries. Remember that it is a temporary strategy.
6. "Stop" thinking and "a quiet place"
"Stop" thinking technique allows you to stop the chain of thoughts when you are in a loop. You simply have to shout out loud or inside "STOP!". Then, suddenly, you change your thought or mental image. You can think of anything.
I prefer to mix "Stop" thinking technique with "a safe place" or "a quiet place." You have to identify a place where you feel at peace, calm and safe. It can be a beach, a forest, a mountain, an empty theater, a park, a cabin, the bottom of the sea, etc. It doesn't necessarily have to be a real place, it can be imaginary. By stopping your chain of thoughts, you transfer yourself to this place. Another interesting variant is to create a dynamic place, that is, the place changes every time: you can imagine that you are walking through this place and you hear, smell, feel or see different objects, animals, plants, or people each time. It depends on your imagination. This variant is close to the previous exercise, but it is done in imagination.
7. Self-instructions
Self-instructions are phrases you address yourself. The goal of self-instructions can be different: reduce anxiety, change attitudes, improve self-image etc. To perform the technique well, you have to identify dysfunctional, irrational or threatening thoughts that hurt or bother you. It is not an easy task because we rarely think about our own thinking (this is exactly what Metacognitive Therapy is based on). We often have catastrophic thoughts or cognitive distortions that occupy our minds and we do not analyze them. Take a sheet of paper and write down these kinds of thoughts during the day. For example,
"If I don’t pass the test, I die",
"If I don’t wash my hands every hour, I’ll get sick"
"My children leave home because they don’t love me anymore"
"My belly hurts for 3 days. I must have cancer".
When you write them down, look for alternative thoughts, that is, thoughts that are more realistic, have logic, do less harm or produce less anxiety. For example,
"If I don’t pass the exam, I will simply study the material again, learn much more and repeat the exam"
"My children leave home because they want to become independent and have their own life. At their age, I was already married. Now I will have more free time for myself"
"The last time I thought I had a heart attack. There’s no reason to have cancer. I’m sure it’s just my anxiety".
In these sentences I also applied the technique of Positive Thinking. Write down these alternative thoughts on the same or another sheet. After that, you can use any variation of this technique or both of them:
- write the same phrase by hand many times (I advise, at least 20 times for each sentence);
- repeat the same phrase (or phrases) many times during the day, for example, when you are in transport, walk down the street or do nothing important (the more times they are repeated, the faster the change will come).
If you need to face certain dreaded situations, repeat these self-instructions always before this situation. Do not forget to analyze, after facing the situation, if the consequences came to which you were afraid or not. Often we are afraid of something hypothetical, and anxiety makes us avoid certain situations and see that the feared consequences never come. I can think that the pot with pickles has bacteria and avoid eating them but, if I see that my partner eats them and nothing happens to him, what would I do next time?
The use of self-directions is very broad. You can use them to reduce anxiety, control your emotions, raise your self-esteem or improve your self-image, change some attitudes or beliefs that do you wrong, move towards your goals, motivate you to do something that is hard to start but you know you enjoy it, etc. Some people may doubt that self-instructions work. In this case, imagine what will happen with a person who since childhood hears from his /her parents that he/she is useless and can do nothing good. The person is likely to assimilate these instructions and later they will become his/her attitudes and beliefs. Therefore, we can change our attitudes and beliefs through instructions or self-instructions.
Finally, remember that producing alternative or positive thoughts is not a bias. The reality is neutral and does not depend on our assessments and signs (positive or negative) that we attribute to it. I may think I will not answer any questions in the interview well but this thought does not change the questions the interviewer prepared for me. I can expect or hope for reciprocity when I confess my love to a particular person, but my desire does not change that person’s feelings for me. If a person does not greet me on the stairs I may think that he/she does not like me or that I am bad, however I do not know the real motives of that person. Thoughts are only mental events. If a negative thought appears, you can compensate it with another, positive, to get closer to reality, which is neutral and has no signs.
8. Behavioral experiments
Behavioral experiments allow us to check whether the feared consequences occur or not. They can be done in therapy or outside the consultation. We often have irrational and dysfunctional beliefs about the consequences of certain situations. But as we avoid these situations, we cannot check whether these consequences arrive or not. The same can be said about some rituals we have to perform to avoid increased anxiety. In both cases, anxiety reduces in the moment but in the long term it will only increase. Here are some examples of dysfunctional beliefs:
"If a boy rejects me, I won't be able to stand it"
"Everyone will look at me if I drop my phone on the floor and it will be horrible"
"I have to control my thoughts. If I think too much, I will go crazy"
"If I wear green trousers, everyone will laugh at me"
"I will never tell my parents that I am a lesbian because they will kill me"
"No one will love me if I show my true colors"
"If I don't wash my hands every hour, I will get sick."
"If a thought appears to me that I kill someone, I will surely end up doing it."
"My heart hurts. I'm sure I'm having a heart attack. I'm going to die young."
"I can't be wrong, it's horrible."
The goal of the behavioral experiment is to perform a feared action or stop doing certain action to see what will happen. Everyone has their fears or compulsions and each case is individual. You can analyse yourself to detect what you want to change. You can ask your friends, family or therapist for help. I leave you some examples but you would have to design your own experiment.
- If you are anxious in social situations, you can deliberately provoke the attention of others or get into awkward situations (ask to change your coffee, drop something, meet someone in a bar or on public transport, sing aloud walking down the street, talk to your boss, make a fool of yourself, etc.).
- If you are afraid of making mistakes or you have other perfectionist ideas, it would be best to make mistakes on purpose and analyse the consequences. Has anything serious or catastrophic happened? Who doesn't make mistakes? Why do we need to make mistakes?
- If you are afraid of situations, objects or very specific circumstances (height, animal, elevator, thunder etc.) and you avoid them, try to stay in the feared situation until the anxiety goes down. Even if you think it won’t come down, it will. Cognitive resources are limited and at some point they run out. If you manage to stay in the situation without avoiding it, you will see that the consequences do not really come as you expected. If you get very scared about something, you can check out the page of Fears and Phobias.
- If you think that worry and anxiety can hurt you physically or mentally, pick a time of day and start worrying to the maximum. Think about all the negative and worry about everything you can. At the end, analyze if you had a heart attack, if you have died or if you have gone crazy. It is one of the exercises that fights your metabeliefs (base of the Metacognitive Therapy).
- If you have certain rituals that you can’t stop doing because your anxiety gets increased if you don’t do them, try to extend the period between one and another repetition. For example, if you have to wash your hands every half hour, try being unwashed for an hour and check if you have died, become infected or something serious happened. If you think you have a more serious problem, like obsessions or compulsions, check out this page.
You can say to yourself what you want to do. On the one hand, you can continue to avoid different situations or, on the contrary, perform rituals that reduce your anxiety for a limited time only. On the other hand, you can dare to do an experiment and analyze the consequences. From there, you decide whether to continue with your previous behavior or to change something.
9. Putting in perspective
We often give more relevance to certain events than there are and exaggerate the importance of negative events. As a result, we experience unpleasant negative emotions or discharge our frustrations on people nearby. According to Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, the important thing is how we interpret a certain situation and not the situation itself. Interpretation leads to certain thoughts that influence our emotions and behavior. For example:
In the face of a job loss: a person could sink, think that he/she is a failure and would never find another job, feel frustration, anger and impotence, lock himself/herself in the house and start drinking. Another person might consider this situation as an opportunity to find a better job, get out of the routine, feel sad but hopeful, start looking for another job or take advantage of unemployment to rest.
The situation is the same but the interpretation of the situation is different and leads to different thoughts, emotions and behaviors. That is, our perception affects our reactions.
You can learn to identify this exaggerated automatic impulse and change perspective. The crucial thing is through critical thinking to approach reality, logic and objectivity. They keep you away from unnecessary stress and depressive and anxious symptoms. Some variants are more difficult and need more practice. I leave below some examples of this technique.
A. Remove the importance of the event (long-term thinking/minimization/temporal perspective). Ask yourself: What importance will this event have in 1 month, in half a year, in 1 year or in 5 years? Will it have the same relevance? What other situations in the past did I consider to be very important but, later on, did not turn out to be so? Am I inflating the importance? Is this situation really so extremely important in my life? I have this test today, but tomorrow I’m gonna feel just as anxious and worried? Is this lie of my friend really going to affect my whole life or is it just a lie? etc.
I have this exam today but tomorrow I'm going to feel just as anxious and worried?
Is this lie from my friend really going to affect my whole life or is it just a lie?
Is the mistake I made in sending this email going to affect me the same way next month? Etc.
B. Step away from the situation (spatial perspective). Try to see the situation from a distance. Imagine that someone else is seeing this situation.
To make the technique easier, you can:
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imagine yourself as if you were many meters away from this situation, being an external observer;
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imagine this situation as if it were a movie you are watching at the cinema;
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tell or write about the episode that affects you from the third person (without using the word "I") Etc.
At the end, you can ask questions like:
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Does the person who is seeing this situation feel the same as you?
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Would that person do the same?
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Is the protagonist to blame, according to this external observer?
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Would any other observer confirm what I think?
The metaphor of the forest could help you: if you are too close to a tree, you do not see the forest behind it. To see it you would have to move away a little and start moving your head and eyes.
If you feel guilty in a certain situation and you cannot forgive someone, apart from performing these techniques, try to put yourself in the place of the people involved. Often, seeing the situation through someone else's eyes helps us forgive them (or lessen our resentment) or feel less guilty.
C. Stop and observe. Before reacting impulsively or exaggeratedly, observe the whole situation for a few seconds or minutes. Think about whether this event really has so much meaning, relevance and importance in your life or you overreact to all the consequences. If after this reflection you decide yes, then act with impulsivity or exaggeration as you wanted to do a priori.
D. Recalibrate priorities. Think about what’s really important in your life.
What’s primary, secondary, or tertiary? Is it really primary what I’m thinking right now? There’s nothing more important? Why do I invest so much time and cognitive resources to think and worry about the same thing?
E. Use critical thinking. Apply logic and rationality instead of relying only on emotions.
Do I have all the data to draw a conclusion? MayI be wrong? Are the consequences on which I think grounded?
F. Focus on successes and the positive. Language (and thoughts) has not evolved to give us positive experiences (this is one of the assumptions of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy). We tend to pay more attention to negative stimuli and we imagine more negative than positive outcomes when we are in an uncertain situation. Reality is neutral and does not depend on the values you give it (+ or -). Therefore, if you have considered the negative alternatives of a situation, analyze possible positive alternatives. Also, remember your successes and try to focus on what came out (or may come out) well, so you "unplug" your thoughts of a possible failure. In this way, you get closer to reality and objectivity.
G. Deliteralization (Defusion) of language. It is one of the main strategies used in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. It consists of a set of exercises that allow you to treat thoughts as thoughts and not as reality. A thought is a thought, an emotion is an emotion, a memory is a memory. These are internal events that do not represent reality (objective and external) and they have to be treated in this way. For example, if you have anxiety and thoughts like "My daughter is on a plane and the plane could crash" or "If I walk down this street with so many people, I will definitely have a panic attack", this means, neither more nor less, that you have an emotion called "anxiety" and a specific thought, but in no case that the plane is going to crash or that you are going to have a panic attack. In short, it is about learning to treat your internal events as such and not as what they advertise themselves to be.
10. Progressive muscle relaxation
It is a technique that was proposed by Jacobson already more than 80 years ago. It is more complex than previous techniques but is very effective in relaxing the body. When we have anxiety and are on alert, the muscles become more tense. Some people even get muscle aches from tension and stiffness. This technique teaches you to tighten your muscles tightly and relax them at once. Relaxing a group of muscles takes away the tension. In addition, the level of anxiety usually decreases. It is important to imagine how muscle relaxation decreases our anxiety.
The steps to follow:
1. Sit comfortably or lie on your back. You can play relaxing music if you want.
2. Tightly contract each muscle group for about 10-15 seconds and suddenly relax them. The pause must always last longer than the tension time, about 20-30 seconds. Each muscle group must be repeated 2 times, first the dominant side and then the opposite side. The sequence is as follows:
- the hand clenching the fist
- the forearm, palm down, pulling fingers upwards
- the arm (biceps) bending the arm or pressing the elbow against the arm of the armchair
- shoulders elevating them as high as possible
- facial muscles making faces
- the neck muscles trying to touch the chest with the chin
- the chest trying to join shoulders
- the back tried to join the shoulder blades
- the abdomen
- the thigh by raising the leg or pressing the thigh against the armchair
- the calf pulling toes towards you
- the foot stretching it to maximum
3. It is better that the moment of relaxation coincides with an expiration.
Do this exercise in times of anxiety and before going to sleep. It can be done directly in bed. The first few days, try it slowly. After a few weeks, you can start tightening the same muscle groups on the left and right side at the same time. After a few months you can tighten different muscle groups without having to follow a specific sequence, introducing some improvisation. Some psychologists may recommend starting the exercise by going down from the face muscles, or from the foot by going up. No matter where you start, the important thing is to learn to relate the moment of muscle distention to relaxation and anxiety reduction. If you prefer, you can use videos and guided audios on different platforms.
11. Training in autogenic relaxation
This technique was proposed a little before the previous one by Schultz in his work "Autogenic training". It turns out that many people can reach a state of deep relaxation by imagining physical sensations, more often, of heaviness and heat. Exercise acts on the autonomic nervous system and balances the sympathetic and parasympathetic branches. This training takes time and you need to learn step by step, because it's crucial to think and not do. .Everything is done in the imagination. Some psychologists consider that the effect is not immediate but comes within a few weeks.
The training has 3 principles:
1. Passive concentration, effortless attention, carefree by the result, do not force and let flow.
2. Reduction of proprioceptive and exteroceptive stimulation
3. Repetition of phrases describing physiological and psychological responses in the mind.
This technique includes 2 levels: the lower (relaxation exercises) and upper (imagination exercises). During the performance certain sentences are repeated and you need to imagine what they suggest. The exercises consist of passive concentration according to a certain sequence: weight in arms and legs, heat in arms and legs, heart movement, respiratory process, internal abdominal heat and temperature difference between the forehead and the air around. Each exercise begins with the phrase "I am calm/relaxed" and ends with the same sequence: deep inspiration , strong bending and stretching of the limbs and opening of the eyes.
A. Lower level.
There are 7 autosuggestion exercises to achieve the state of relaxation. The recommended duration of each exercise is 1-2 minutes for beginners and can reach 5 minutes but should not be longer. If the recommended time is exceeded, some tension can appear caused by fear of losing control, passivity and letting go. Starting with short periods and increasing each week the duration helps desensitize these fears. Before you start, sit on a comfortable chair or lie on the bed or floor. Don’t strain your breath and close your eyes. The sequence is as follows:
1. Relaxation exercise: it causes the state of calm and tranquility to the body and mind. Repeat 6 times the phrase "I am calm, my body and my mind are relaxed". Then repeat once the phrase "I am very calm and relaxed" and open your eyes.
2. Weight exercise: produces the feeling of weight in the extremities.
- "My right arm is very heavy" - 6 times
- "I am very calm and relaxed" - 1 time
- "My left arm is very heavy" - 6 times
- "I am very calm and relaxed" - 1 time
- "My right leg is very heavy" - 6 times
- "I am very calm and relaxed" - 1 time
- "My left leg is very heavy" - 6 times
- "I am very calm and relaxed" - 1 time
Then take a deep breath, flex and stretch the limbs and open your eyes.
3. Heat exercise: causes an increase in temperature in the extremities. The previous sequence is followed by changing to the phrase "My right arm is very hot".
4. Breathing exercise: produces calm breathing. "My breathing is regular and calm".
5. Exercise for the heart: allows to increase the concentration in the beats. "My heart beats regularly" or "My pulse is calm and regular" 6. Abdominal exercise: focuses attention on the solar plexus. " My abdomen is a heat stream". 7. Head exercise: focus on the head. " My mind is clear" or "My forehead is pleasantly fresh".
B. Higher level.
The general recommendations are the same as in the lower level. Before going to this stage, you have to master the lower level exercises. These are imagination exercises. Each exercise begins with the phrase "I am calm and relaxed" and ends with the phrase "I stretch my arms and legs, I breathe deeply and open my eyes". The sequence of exercises is as follows:
1. Experience with colors. Direct the view to the center of the forehead and give rise to a color, for example: "In my imagination I see a color, a green color that floods everything".
2. Imagination of concrete objects. It can be a rose, a candle or a form, for example: "In my imagination I see a complete and perfect circle".
3. Evoke a feeling. "It makes me feel calm, safe, at peace".
4. Imagine a place. For example: "I am climbing to the top of a mountain". or "I’m walking on the bottom of the sea".
5. Shaping abstract values. For example, hope, love or courage, etc.
6. Imagine yourself with certain purposes. For example: "I will successfully face this difficult situation".
7. Raise a personal question. For example: "I wonder who I am and what I want in life".
8. Imagination of a person. For example: "I see my partner approaching me".
The sequence is not strict and other exercises of this type can be added. You can improvise each time changing colors, shapes, places and people. It is important to know that you cannot pass to the next exercise if you have not mastered the previous one. Each time when introducing a new exercise, you should review the previous ones. It is advisable to practice this technique 2-3 times a day if possible. On different platforms you can find guided videos and audios to learn how to follow the sequence.
12. Sports
Sport is one of the best strategies to reduce and control anxiety. During sport increases the amounts of dopamine and natural endorphins. However, in order to enjoy sports you have to follow a series of recommendations:
1. It has to be a type of physical activity that you like. It’s not worth trying to do something that you dislike. The range of physical activities is very wide, for example, acrobatics, swimming pool, dancing, pilates, cycling, skates, hiking, ball games, team play, badminton, water sports, martial arts etc.
2. Start small. If you’ve never done sports or spent a lot of time without doing it, it’s better to start with low intensity and frequency. Then the training is progressively increased. Some people start to play hard sports the first day, have unpleasant sensations during the training, get sore muscles the next day and they leave very fast. Therefore, it is crucial to go step by step to get used to training and start getting pleasure from it.
3. Sport has to be safe enough so that the person doesn’t get hurt or worry about something going wrong.
There are several benefits of doing sports or physical activity:
1. It distracts from mental activity, automatic thoughts and everyday problems.
2. It allows the weight to be kept within a desirable range.
3. Reduces health risks.
4. Strengthen your joints and muscles.
5. It allows socializing with other people.
6. Reduces anxiety considerably. Progressive muscle relaxation exercise (number 4) uses this advantage: by tightening and relaxing the muscles, the anxiety level drops.
7. Improves sleep, mood and sexual health.
13. Other general techniques and lifestyle
You can look for other more spiritual activities to improve your mood and reduce anxiety. Good results give yoga and meditation. You can do it in groups or individually. On different platforms you can find classes to learn. Then you can do it alone anywhere: at home, in the park, on the beach, in the forest, in the mountains or at work. Some people go further and use Zhen’s practices or ideas of Buddhism as their philosophy of life. It is a good strategy to eliminate long-term anxiety.
Other general strategies for anxiety include different types of art, including martial arts. You can find a hobby at home or in a group, for example, drawing, ceramics, dancing, sculpture, sewing, etc. Find something that you are passionate about.
Also, control what you eat but don’t try to ban anything at all as this strategy often fails. In addition, try to reduce or eliminate the consumption of alcohol, tobacco and other drugs because the consumption leads to an increase in anxiety and reduces the level of quality of life.
Remember that you can always find strategies, techniques or activities that help you with your anxiety at specific times. But the essential thing is to look for the root of your anxiety. If you don’t remove the source, it will continue to appear. By knowing the problematic situation, you can look for ways to make a change in life and end anxiety and negative emotions.
