7 ways to lessen anxiety

Everyone, in their own way, deals with anxiety. It happens naturally throughout our daily routine with work, family, and friends, but when that anxiety becomes too much to handle, it can start to take a toll on your mental and physical health. 

Learning to live with and lessen your anxiety can make your life a whole lot easier.

But lessening your anxiety is easier said than done, so I've brought together some ways you can ease anxiety and create a better atmosphere within your life. Addressing and lessening your anxiety doesn’t have to be costly or time-consuming; just a few changes to your daily routine, and you’ll be able to create a positive outlook for your whole life.

What is anxiety?

Pop culture and our daily media diet are saturated with ideas about what anxiety is and ways to combat it. Understanding the truth about anxiety is the first step toward learning to lessen stress.

The core of anxiety is a feeling of fear, dread, and uneasiness about anything and everything. This feeling can extend beyond mere nerves and become a significant issue, causing you to start sweating, feel restless or extremely tense, and even increase your heart rate.

Anxiety is a natural response to stimuli and can even be a benefit in some situations. It can give you a burst of energy or a huge amount of clarity to focus on a task or situation better.

Where things start to take a turn for the worse is when that anxiety increases and doesn’t go away after the situation resolves itself. Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is a higher level of anxiety that focuses on ordinary issues like health, money, work, and family and can quickly become excessive, lasting for months!

Panic disorders and phobias are increased levels of anxiety, as well as focusing on tiny details about your life, and causing a major reaction. You might have a panic attack that lasts for a few minutes or be deathly anxious about spiders or social situations, all of which cause a major disruption in your life.

Symptoms of anxiety

Anxiety can be hard to diagnose because many of the symptoms we see regularly or think of as being produced by anxiety can also be symptoms of some other cause. The symptoms associated with anxiety are varied and can range in severity.

Some of the most common are feeling restless, wound-up, or on edge. This general feeling of uneasiness is typical of anxiety. The heightened levels of awareness can make you feel like a watered-down version of yourself, out of touch with what’s going on around you and always looking out for the next issue that can attack.

Being easily fatigued is another common symptom of anxiety. Since your senses are heightened in your body’s attempt to be on the lookout for anything that might pose a threat to you or your life, your immune system and body’s response is to shut down quickly and become easily worn out. When you have a hard time getting through the day without a nap or feel like you’re going to crash at any moment, it can be a sign of anxiety.

With so many thoughts of “what can go wrong” pounding through your head, it’s no wonder that anxiety can make it difficult to concentrate. As anxiety about a situation or issue grows, it can feel like that thought grows in your head as well, crowding out anything else you may be thinking of in your daily routine. Concentrating on routines and daily tasks becomes nearly impossible when all you can think of is the issue you’re trying to confront.

Irritability is another common anxiety issue. Between not being able to concentrate and always feeling worn out and exhausted, it can be far too easy to snap at loved ones or co-workers and put yourself in a spot where everything seems to get on your nerves and upset you.

Anxiety triggers

Deep down, understanding what causes anxiety can be a much messier task. Everyone has their issues and deals with anxiety on a different level. What makes you anxious and upset may not upset the person next to you. But there are some common triggers when it comes to anxiety, and learning to recognise them can make it easier to deal with the issue later on.

Physical or emotional abuse

Abuse of any kind can be a trigger for anxiety as you attempt to deal with emotions that have been caused by someone else to lash out in the past. When you feel like you have to tiptoe on eggshells around someone, so they don’t hit you or lash out with their words, it can leave you feeling vulnerable and exposed. Every situation beyond that is a cause for anxiety: When will they lash out next? What am I not doing right, or what am I doing wrong? The constant swirl of emotions leads to an excess of anxiety that can quickly worsen and consume your life.

Messy home life

Your home, no matter how big or small, is a reflection of you. When your home is messy, it can be easy to get overwhelmed and anxious about the day ahead. Instead of being able to focus on work or family and friends, the mess can lurk in the back of your mind, causing a massive amount of anxiety. There’s no way to focus on anything but the laundry list of things that are happening at home or aren’t getting done as you leave the mess to sit.

Social gatherings

Not everyone is skilled, or wants to be skilled, at handling a wide range of social situations out in the world. The idea of small talk and talking to strangers can become overwhelming. When the idea sits in your head and isn’t confronted, it can cause anxiety that leaves you feeling helpless at the end of the day.

Finances

Money feels like it can solve all your problems, but dealing with your finances can cause a lot of anxiety at the end of the day. When you aren’t sure where your money is going, or you dread the idea of even looking at bank statements and bills, finances can be hard to deal with and may cause anxiety in your daily routine.

How to reduce anxiety

As you take a look at your life, you should be able to see which areas are causing you problems and what potential triggers may be setting off your anxiety! Now’s the time to deal with that anxiety with some tips on how to lessen your anxiety, no matter what the cause.

1. EFT tapping

EFT tapping is a newer method for dealing with anxiety that involves tapping different parts of the body to disrupt the negative emotions and pain you may be feeling. The ideas behind EFT are similar to acupuncture, where you focus on the meridian points within the body to restore balance. While acupuncture uses needles and requires a trained professional to accomplish it, EFT tapping can be done in the comfort of your home and only requires some minimal knowledge of your meridian points! 

Try this tapping exercise to lessen anxiety: 

• Tap the side of the hand point on either hand while saying out loud (or to yourself), "Even though I have this anxiety, I deeply and completely love and accept myself."
• Tap each of the points below while repeating the affirmation above (or one that is specific to your anxiety): eyebrow, side of eye, under eye, under nose, chin, collarbone, under arm.
• As you tap each point, mentally repeat your affirmation. Finish by tapping the top of your head and repeating your affirmation one last time. 

EFT tapping is a simple but effective way to begin lessening the symptoms of anxiety. While it may not be a cure-all, it can help to provide relief.

2. Music and dance

Music has a power that is hard to understand. There’s a genre for everyone, and it reaches into the recesses of our minds and taps into something greater there. And dancing around in your living room is fun. When you’re feeling stressed and anxious, turning on some of your favourite music can be a great way to lessen the issue.

Getting up and dancing around to music can increase your serotonin levels as you move and exercise, and flood your brain with “feel-good” hormones. Just a few minutes of dancing around and listening to music can lower your sense of anxiety and help put you in a better place for the day.

3. Community

There’s nothing quite like community! Having a place and a group of people you can go to and spill out all these feelings of stress and anxiety is a great way to relieve the pressure and put yourself on better footing. The simple act of sharing what’s bothering you breaks up the logjam that can be created when anxiety enters the picture. When you have a group that you trust and can share your innermost feelings and secrets with, you’re able to shed the load you carry when anxiety builds in your system. 

4. Movement

Anxiety can paralyse, so to lessen anxiety, it’s time to get moving! When you start to feel trapped by all that anxiety and anxious thoughts, getting up and getting moving can break up the system of thought.

As you get moving, whether it’s through dance or a walk outside, or a bike ride in the neighbourhood, your body releases a hormone called serotonin. This floods your body with a feeling of happiness and can help you feel less anxious about all the issues you’re facing. It doesn’t have to be intense movement, either. There's no need to run a marathon to get rid of anxious thoughts. Just head outside and go for a walk around the block.

5. Journaling

The power of anxiety is that it holds us captive in our minds. It can feel like no one in the world understands what we’re going through, and to speak it out loud would be to admit that we have a problem. Journaling can be a great way to lessen anxiety! Instead of having to share or speak the problem out loud when you’re not ready to share, journaling lets you release your thoughts and feelings without being forced to share with others.

Create a space and time in your day to journal about what’s bothering you and how it’s impacted your day. Write about letting it go and moving on, and how you can solve the problem you’re feeling at the moment.

Here are a few journal prompts to lessen anxiety:

• I am grateful for…
• Today I will focus on…
• My goal is to…
• The best thing about today was…
• I overcame…
• What can I do to make tomorrow a better day?

6. Affirmations: 'I am' statements

In that same prison that anxiety creates, we often lose sight of who we are. Everything becomes about “the problem” with no reminder of who we are as people and what we can accomplish in the rest of our lives. Affirmations or 'I am' statements create a space for you to continuously affirm yourself and create a sense of worth and purpose in your life.

These can be simple, or they can be more complex, but they’re designed to reflect you. Starting your day by reciting some affirmations allows you to reframe the anxiety you’re feeling into a simple issue to be solved instead of the core of your identity.

• I am ____________.
• I am capable of ___________.
• I am working towards ___________.
• I am worthy of ___________.
• I can handle ___________.

These are some examples, but can be tailored to fit your needs. Find what works for you and stick with it. The more you remind yourself of who you are, the less power anxiety will have over you.

7. Reframing and questioning thought patterns

It’s time to take a deeper look at what you’re encountering when it comes to your anxiety. Reframing and questioning the thought pattern breaks the cycle that you feel.

Take a step back and look at what’s causing all the anxiety in your life. Is it a simple situation you can get out of? Can you avoid the problem in general and move forward? What areas of your life are causing the problem? Is there a way to look at it differently?

By simply reframing the question and refocusing on how you see the anxiety you’re dealing with, you can approach the problem in a new light and make changes to move forward.

Bonus toolkit for dealing with anxiety and stress

Everyone is going to deal with stress and anxiety differently, but there are some key things you can always keep in your toolkit when you encounter a situation that causes anxiety.

Deep breathing techniques

Sometimes all you need is to take a deep breath. Learning some simple deep breathing techniques and keeping them in your toolkit can be helpful when you have a particularly stressful situation. The act of taking deep breaths and working through deep breathing techniques slows your body and mind down, forcing them to think things through.

Self-care routine

When it comes to taking care of yourself, it can be easy to lose focus on what your body and mind need when you’re enmeshed in a load of stress. Having a simple self-care routine on hand that you can utilise quickly and efficiently is a great way to break up the anxiety that may have built up in your head.

Indulging in a new scent or a walk in the park, or even just something as simple as taking a minute out of your day to listen to your favourite music, can help you care for yourself.

Remember: It happens to everyone

Anxiety happens to everyone, and when it becomes overwhelming, it can cause a whole host of issues, from just being restless to not being able to sleep at night. When feeling like this, it can leave you wondering if there’s any hope at all. While it may take time to break out of the routine of anxiety, there are lots of ways to create a better balance in your life.

From deep breathing and journaling to EFT, these tips can help create a healthier headspace in your life. Going to your community for help and spending time moving, dancing, and listening to music all create a space for your mind and body to slow down and heal.

Don’t let anxiety overwhelm you to the point where you feel you can’t function. There are ways to help anxiety and reduce its effects on your life.