Exercises To Calm Your Anxious Thoughts
How can I mange these thoughts!
In the U.S 27.3% of adults struggle with anxiety disorder, 41.7 % of young adults from 18-29 years suffer from anxiety and 9.4% of children have anxiety[ link]. Anxiety disorder is one of the most common mental health disorder and has increased in the last three years due to COVID-19 pandemic. Anxiety is built in everyone, it is a coping mechanism for survival that activates out fear respond in our brain. We experience anxiety throughout our day, for instance, forgetting your homework, running late to work, or not finding your keys. When we start worrying about things that we can control, or worry about the worst possible scenario, our thinking becomes unhealthy that can cause overwhelming feeling effecting our everyday life.
There are two pathways to anxiety. The cortex pathway which has to do with the thinking part of our brain, like thoughts and images, and the second pathway is the amygdala pathway, which is the emotional part of the brain that influences love, bonding, sexual behavior, anger, aggression, and fear. The exercises that I have provided below are evidence based practices that have helped my clients in reducing their feelings of anxiousness and giving them more control managing their thoughts.
1. Relaxation techniques target the amygdala pathways, reducing the activation of the sympathetic nervous system of of the brain and an integral component to reducing stress and anxiety. For example you can do muscle-focused relaxation strategies, like progressive muscle relaxation, breathing-focused strategies (4-7-8 or diaphragmatic breathing techniques), guided imagery or visualization strategies, meditation (mindfulness based practices), and breath-focused mediation.
2. Don’t avoid your thoughts. Addressing our unhealthy thinking patterns targets the cortex pathways and developing adaptive/ fair thoughts. We cant avoid feeling or thinking, the brain will always remind you about a thought that has not been addressed. The first helpful step is to make time for your anxiety during the day by witting down your thoughts, take a break by either stretching, taking a walk or doing an activity. Then, look at what you wrote down (this is a day time activity) and start asking yourself; “Does this make sense? Do I have control over this worry thought? Am I being fair to myself?” If you feel like you have control of a worry thought, start problem solving. If you don’t have control over the worry thought, then why worry about something you can not control. You start doing this by reframing or developing adaptive thoughts. For example, if you are worried about your recent blood results “ What if I have diabetes?” you can develop an adaptive thought “Diabetes is something that I am able to control. No matter what the results are I am going to be ok.” By developing adaptive thoughts and reframing, you bring your anxiety level from an 8 to a 3; feeling more in control.
You are rewiring your anxious brain, so be compassionate, and patient with yourself. This takes time!
