How I kept my anxiety problems in check — And how you can do this too | 10 ways to manage anxiety in daily life

Anxiety, the word itself sounds uncomfortable, on hearing. The literal meaning of the word “anxiety” is a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease about something with an uncertain outcome. Basically this puts you into a state of confusion where you think of too many things too quickly to predict a possible outcome, out of perceived fear or worry about something or someone. If predicted outcomes turn out to be false, you become more agitated and upset. And this cycle goes on forever resulting in bad sleep, poor relationships, low motivation at work, etc. It takes time to build a sufficient amount of anxiety to finally affect you psychologically.

In general, the roots of anxiety is mostly found in one’s past events like trauma, emotional abuse, physical abuse, poor parenting and sexual abuse. On the other hand, it can also arise from someone’s belief systems, unrealistic expectations, poor work-life balance, etc. Anxiety control is not easy but definitely manageable based on how deep the anxiety goes in. However, few techniques, which I will explain below, will definitely help in coping up with this issue.

Some symptoms of having anxiety:

1. Fast unwanted thoughts.
2. Sleepless nights or difficulty in deep sleep.
3. Sweating.
4. Excessive worry.
5. Flight or fight response like situation.
6. Irritability.

Anxiety management is never easier. In this article, I aim to help you with that.

10 ways to manage anxiety:

1. Breathe slowly. Like seriously.
2. Stop worrying.
3. Eat healthy and much less processed foods.
4. Be aware of your friend/social circle.
5. Get serious with your marriage/relationship.
6. Join a fitness center.
7. Do not procrastinate. Do it NOW.
8. Control how much time you spend on screen.
9. Read a book. Make it a habit.
10. Practice gratitude.

1. Breathe slowly:

Slow breathing is one of those great techniques that really work in calming your mind and body. It is a very crucial technique often used in yoga practice and meditation sessions. But it does not need any preparation, you can do it anywhere. So utilize it. Count up to ten seconds, then slowly breathe in. Wait for five seconds, and breathe out. Repeat. After doing this for few times, you will feel the difference. Initially I also took this lightly. To my surprise, I realized its significance after performing this in a few meditation sessions.

2. Stop worrying:

We all have troubles in our life but it is better not to ponder about it all the time. It is okay to worry about something or someone you care about. But the hard reality is that, your worries will have no influence over that situation, in fact unnecessary worries will only make the situation worse. If you well manage your life on the right time without any procrastination, you have to worry much less. You worry because maybe you did not prepare well on time for an upcoming exam, maybe because you wasted time earlier and now feeling the pressure in the end. Or in some cases, you failed to take calculated risks, and as a result, suffering the consequences. If your preparation is right and timely, you will pass most situations with flying colors. The same is true for your life as well. Focus on the current situation and stop worrying as it makes no sense.

3. Eat healthy, seriously:

It has been said that a healthy body results into a healthy mind. And it is practically true. Most of us now a days, rely on junk foods available outside. Outside foods are really unhealthy. They have very less to no nutritional value in them. It is solely made to please you and fulfill your desires of having a delicious meal. Not all outside foods are bad, for example if you buy them from a expensive and reputed restaurant, those who value food quality over taste. As per my record, I rely on homemade foods mostly. A healthy meal will directly affect your mind and body, also will influence how it responds. It affects your sleep quality and helps to keep a healthy heart. Like everyone knows that coffee can keep you awake at night, kind of. Similarly, other foods we take in, also affects us in many ways.

4. Be aware of your friend/social circle:

Technically, friends are there to help you and motivate you. But in current times, we hardly see them around. Now a days, we consider everyone we meet a possible friend. That is true in some cases, but mostly it is not. Understand that real friendship isn’t cheap and isn’t easily available. You must separate your true friend circle and just friends. And do not confuse those two. Often it is seen how friends whom one thought was true, turned their back on, in crucial times. So that is more like a problem in your judgement, a problem in your awareness. Always remember, friends are there to help you, motivate you, inspire you and bring you positivity. Having a fake friend or a bad friend/social circle is troubling. A constant fight of between you two’s beliefs and values, disagreements in many areas and even rare heated arguments. These sort of situations will make anybody passively angry and anxious. Your forgiveness and a second chance will bring no change in your friendship, if the core values are different. Know when to end a friendship respectfully, because it only gets worse with time. However, do not burn bridges. If required, maintain professional relationships under limits.

5. Get serious with your marriage/relationship:

A good relationship leads to a good marriage, which further leads to a good and stable family. So it is important to set aside some quality time for your family and yourself too. Sort out conflicts before they become big arguments, as arguments between parents can negatively affect a child’s mind too, being one main reason for anxiety. Of course, every marriage or relationship(s) goes through tough times, where communication is the key. Watch movies together, play some family games or do activities which needs family contribution. It is true that a bad relationship can ruin your child, but it does not make you less vulnerable to it. Anyone can get anxiety with a unstable relationship, specially when it is a marriage. But if it seems that the relationship has gone beyond repair, then separation is the only sensible way to deal with such issues without damaging each others peace and dignity.

6. Join a fitness center:

Like healthy food, proper fitness routine is a must for one’s well-being. Running a kilometer every day or alternate days can boost blood flow and help in getting rid of those extra calories. Good blood flow means more blood will flow throughout your body and inside your brain. This way you’ll be in good mood, mind will stay sharp and will be able to take rational decisions. It is important to note that most of the anxiety symptoms can be solved through proper self-care. If you do not like gyms, then you can try yoga along with meditation. Although yoga cannot be considered that much of a high activity fitness thing, but still it works on most issues. Maintain discipline of your healthcare and you will be amazed how it will benefit you. Less anxiety and more productivity.

7. Do not procrastinate. Do it NOW:

Leaving work for later time is a deadly habit. It has the potential to destroy everything you had ever achieved or will going to achieve in the future. We all have big dreams. Buying a house, buying a car, going on international tours and so much more. But only dreaming is not going to get you there. You have to work for it. That means doing work today right now and never delaying any work out of laziness. We get hurt when our expectations do not come true which leads to an anxiety attack of why you failed. This is also relatable to the second point which I explained above, about stop worrying. Do your work now, every single day and forget about the results except it of a improvement statistic. Hard work and discipline speaks for itself.

8. Control how much time you spend on screen:

Social media does one thing more than anything else, giving people a flood of emotions through anger, violence, hatred and provocative texts, images and videos. That is how social media companies operate, keeping the most controversial and active posts on the top. Because people like controversies. Irony is that we make a choice ourselves what we hate later. Because of internet, evil people get the chance to sit behind a screen and tell sh*t about other people or even spread hatred, out of political or personal reasons. Internet definitely has it’s positive sides but this major issue is there. Companies do limit controversies on their platforms, just like recently YouTube removed the dislike button. But that is not good enough to protect yourself from these malicious people and their intentions. And finally all these can have a negative impact on your well-being, giving you anxiety attacks after a prolonged exposure. Try your best to limit usage of the internet and social media as much as possible, and if you find it hard then stop using them completely unless and until your anxiety symptoms go away. Later you may resume using them if you wish to.

9. Read a book. Make it a habit:

Wherever we see, technology is lurking around. It is hard to imagine a world without technology in the 21st century. But sometimes we should embrace the old style. Reading a book helps boost your vocabulary and increase your knowledge. Most of us slowly give up on the habit of reading books after we pass our school and college exams. And that greatly hampers our mental enrichment. Just like eating healthy food is good for your body, reading good books are healthy for your mind too. When your mind is good and stable, you will have less chances of getting an anxiety attack.

10. Practice gratitude:

Be thankful for what you currently have. Always be. There are so many people richer than you and have more things in their life. But if you look at the other side, there are millions of people out there who do not even have their daily bread and water. And they are struggling for it. And this very idea is enough for one to realize that one cannot attain everything in their life. I am not limiting on self-growth though, through this. Too much unrealistic expectation will eventually lead to a disappointment and frustration. That is why knowing your own limits and abilities, accepting it and practicing gratitude is very important. That keeps us humble.

CONCLUSION:

Identifying anxiety in early stages is important because then you can protect yourself from further damage. Because as I said, if not controlled it can affect you psychologically and can cause incurable damage. If you need external help, no need to be introverted. You may take help of a professional therapist and tell them your problems in detail. What I have outlined here in this article is good for approaching such issues by self and is definitely NOT any medical or professional advice. But sometimes, your issue might be more complex, requiring a therapist eventually. Anxiety management is hard. Not impossible.