How To Beat Anxiety Without Medication? 8 Psychological Tricks For Overcoming Anxiety - Quality Of Life, Self-development

2023 Author: Oswald Adamson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-21 20:18

It is impossible to live without anxiety. Everything that matters to us - health, family, well-being, success - are potential causes of excitement. Calling to remain calm and indifferent in any situation is pointless. Let's figure out what to do if anxiety began to rule our lives?

Anxiety is a natural response to many events, but there are two problems. First: our worries are disproportionate to the reasons, and then we worry too much. Second: based on anxiety, we commit rash acts, and then we shovel the consequences. Therefore, the task is not to become as impenetrable as a bulletproof vest, but to regulate anxious experiences, to prevent them from excessively roaming around.

There are many ways to deal with anxiety in practical psychology. Below are eight different psychotechniques that you can use to reduce anxiety on your own.

1. Refute worrying thoughts

One of the most famous and effective areas of psychotherapy today - cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy - is based on the idea that our emotions and experiences are generated by thinking. If we feel anxiety, it means that there are thoughts of an alarming nature in our head or have just been. Therefore, when anxiety appears, ask yourself: “What am I thinking now? What thoughts flashed through your head?"

The next step is to look at these ideas critically. To do this, ask yourself the following questions: “Where did these thoughts come from? Do they match reality exactly? Is there any exaggeration, dramatization, or some other distortion of reality in my assessments? What evidence is there that my judgment is correct? Is it possible to verify their reliability?"

The last - and most important part of the work is to formulate new, more rational, more balanced thoughts. This is not primitive "positive thinking", but sound, sober, realistic reasoning about a certain situation. And they will lead to a calmer perception of it, to your emotional stability, balance, and hence - to more constructive decisions and actions.

2. Calm down the "inner child"

The eminent psychotherapist Eric Berne proposed distinguishing three parts within each person: Adult, Parent and Child. It is in our children's part that anxieties, anxiety, and uncertainty arise. Therefore, when you feel anxious, you should speak directly to your Child.

Take the test "What does your inner child need?"

You need to talk to him the way you communicate with five-year-old children, that is, in a soft voice, calmly comfort, calm down, support, help the child's part in you feel good. In addition to talking, you can take care of her in another way: cover yourself with a warm blanket, make yourself tea, turn on pleasant music. This is not running away from a problem, but taking care of yourself, about your comfort in order to calm down and then return to thinking about a difficult situation in a calmer state.

3. Use relaxation and other bodily resources

It's no secret that emotions are "reflected" in our body, in particular, by muscle clamps. With anxiety, tension often occurs in the abdomen, shoulders, jaw and back of the head. Relaxation of these muscles can reduce anxiety. Gently direct your attention to your belly and imagine how with each exhalation the tension goes away, the belly becomes soft, warm, relaxed.

Place your hands on your stomach and do light strokes. Breathe evenly, calmly, slightly lengthening the exhalation, but within the comfort zone. Spend at least five minutes with this activity. Then, in the same way, release the shoulders, jaw and back of the head from the tension. See if you feel uncomfortable somewhere else? Relax this area. You will feel relief, a pleasant feeling of relaxation and calmness.

4. Write about your anxiety

Several useful processes are triggered at once when we write about our worries, so pen and paper are sometimes more effective than a tablet. There are a lot of written practices. To begin with, just describe your state: what you feel, what sensations are. Then write down all the thoughts that appear in your head: write quickly, without following the spelling and punctuation, it doesn't matter now.

Is it done? Pause for tea, and then re-read your notes and make a list of steps you need to take to solve the problem. Separately write how you can help yourself to calm down, who else and how can help you.

5. Draw a scale of disasters

This is a very powerful anxiety reduction technique. Take a piece of paper and write down in a column 20 of the worst situations that (God forbid, of course) can happen in your life. For example: the terminal stage of cancer, the death of a loved one, the breakdown of marital relations, loss of housing, dismissal, and so on.

Now look at where on that scale what you're worried about, say, how the date or interview goes. Probably in 18th place out of 20. You can see for yourself, compared to those terrible events that can happen, this is almost a trifle, and there is nothing to worry about, right?

6. Observe thoughts distantly

Our psyche has the ability to observe thoughts, that is, to move into the position of a detached witness of the mind's work. When contemplating how thoughts come and go, they do not emotionally capture us, so there is no disturbing reaction. The disadvantage of this method is that it requires training. There are practical, useful imaginary situations.

Imagine that you are sitting on the bank of a river, and thoughts float in front of you like leaves with a stream. Another option: you are standing on a bridge, and a train passes under it, and thoughts lie in the carriages that pass by. The most important thing is not to start thinking about the content of thoughts, but only to observe.

When you find that you have lost your observer position and are immersed in your thoughts, simply return to detached contemplation again. Over time, this technique will get better, and it will become effective in helping you deal with anxiety.

7. Send yourself greetings from the past

Often what worries us today is the “echo” of events from our past. For example, if sometime in childhood you were hurt and very scared in the dentist's office, then even after 30 years you may feel fear when you need to make an appointment with a doctor. Therefore, when you are experiencing anxiety, ask yourself: "Does this situation remind me of something from the past?" If so, clearly separate the events that were long past from what is happening today.

Tell yourself that now the situation is completely different from the original, you are not at all the little helpless child that you were then, now you have much more resources to cope with the circumstances. Leaving the past in the past, you will feel that the perception of the problem has changed a lot, it has become much easier.

8. Step forward

Anxious people often try to avoid situations that excite them. This strategy allows you to worry less, but it limits your life and does not eliminate the source of anxiety. Therefore, in many cases, it is best to do what is scary: undergo a medical examination, talk to an attractive woman, send a resume, enter an elevator (possibly accompanied by a loved one).

No psychological tricks can compare in effectiveness with the real experience of living in a frightening situation. Only after going through it and seeing that you are alive and life goes on, it will be possible to radically reduce anxiety or even completely free yourself from it.

Now you're probably thinking, "Which of the following is the best way?" The correct answer is the one or those that will work for you. Different methods help different people: some work great with the body, breathing, muscle clamps, while others - writing exercises. Finding out which approach is effective for you can only be done empirically.