Navigating Anxiety - 3 Ways
At times, being human can be really overwhelming. Things don’t go our way, unwelcomed thoughts came to stay, our minds might not even feel sane. In the past month, I have been experiencing intensified worries and fears about the future which undeniably crippled my ability to function as an emotionally healthy person and an aspiring writer on this platform.
Fortunately, on an agonizing evening drowning in anxiety, the inner rational adult in me decided that this has to stop. It was needed that I stop victimizing myself as the slave of my thoughts and finally take up the responsibility of trying to feel & think better. Emerging steadily out from this emotional rut, I’d like to share some of the thought processes and methods I learned along the way that were useful to reframe fears and worries.
Thoughts are just thoughts and thoughts could be altered
When encountering a certain pessimistic belief, this is one of the mantras I used frequently to remind myself about the dynamic between me and my thoughts. Thoughts are not facts and should not hold power over me. They are merely there for the sake of human instincts preparing us for any possible dangers, and they can be exaggerated at times. Producing false alarms, creating havoc in the mind.
Having this easily-recalled mantra as a fallback concept repositions me as the master of my thoughts and not vice versa. Our own negative beliefs about ourselves and the world around us could always be changed, and it is up to us to modify them. One of my favourite quotes from Shakespeare: “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”
Life is much more than just avoiding fears
Nothing in life comes without risks. Driving on the road involves the possibility of getting into an accident, falling in love incorporates the chances of being rejected, posting on the Internet might get us ridiculed, even sleeping, entails risks of dying.
We know we don’t go about our day worrying about every little thing. However, some personal fears are more significant than others and might get in the way of how we choose to live our lives. When we are afraid of something, we might not do certain activities or go to certain places to avoid encountering our fears. For example, being scared of open waters stops one from having fun at the beach, being afraid of heartbreaks hinders one from forming healthy relationships with a potential partner, constantly worrying about failure will deter one from achieving an ambitious goal.
When we let these fears take the wheel, our world inevitably shrinks. The things we could do, the places we ought to go and the people we meet will also be restricted.
Like running a business, we could manage risks by assessing them. In order to not let fears be the sole determining factor of the choices we make, intentionally selecting the “danger level” that we are comfortable with is vital. For instance, some people do extreme sports because it adds value to their life. Some don’t, because the value (or the lack thereof) it brings is not worth the risk or danger. Both are fine as long as they come from deliberation, not pure avoidance.
As Emma, a licensed therapist in her video (which I should give credit for enlightening me) said, “It’s a much greater risk to live your life in fear and reacting only to anxiety and trying to avoid anxiety in such a way that you no longer have a choice in your life. You’re not choosing what you want to be doing in your life, you’re choosing just to avoid anxiety.”
Guided Meditations
Plenty of studies have revealed various health benefits regarding meditation such as reducing stress and enhancing our emotional well-being. It was not until I started practising it regularly that I experience the extended calmness that expands from my meditation sessions to other parts of the day.
I have personally found meditation rather calming. Guided by the video narrator of my choice, I’d drift off to wherever they take me, visualizing doubts and anxiety washing away from the shore of my consciousness. It is like dieting for the mind, filtering unhealthy thoughts to regain our sense of tranquillity.
Tendencies to overthink and have jumbled thoughts may not be in our control, but trying to sort them out and unfog the mind is definitely our responsibility.
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