In this article, we will explain to Control Anxiety Naturally naturally and with simple steps that will greatly improve your quality of life. Everyone at some point in our lives has felt its symptoms and we’ve had to fight and overcome anxiety.
These symptoms produce agitation, racing thoughts, loss of control, sweating and more and are often treated as an illness. This is the first mistake that occurs, since anxiety is not a disease, but a symptom of a problem.
When this occurs, the wide range of anxiolytics that are consumed that just stop the symptoms appear, leaving the problem that causes them unresolved, so it’s just putting what I call a “patch”. Therefore, many people continue to take anxiolytics for years and are unable to cure.
10 steps to control anxiety naturally
1-Identify what happens to you
This first step is fundamental, you should know that anxiety plays an adaptive role, it protects us, activating us for action and makes us react energetically in the post-survival period.
Imagine that you are walking through the field so relaxed and suddenly a brave bull of about 500 kilos appears running towards you. This is where anxiety symptoms seem to protect us and give us the energy we need to get away.
Your pupils will be dilated so you don’t miss details of the beast, your heart will beat harder to pump blood to all your musculature and, if it reacts faster, you’ll start to sweat which will make your body cool, etc.
All that change your body has experienced will make you run for cover or even climb a tree. This one I describe is the adaptive function, but currently the situation of that bull chasing him is imagined, that’s where the problem lies.
Our mind imagines terrible things that can happen to us, like we can lose our job, not being able to find a partner, our partner leaving us, an argument with someone and a long etc. that harm our health.
2-Know the power of your thoughts
Your way of thinking, the way you work out a supposed catastrophic situation using your imagination, is where a big part of the problem is anxiety. That is why the different anxiolytics do not work on changing this way of thinking, but on the symptoms of anxiety.
The human being is an imaginative being by nature and that often turns against you and is reflected in the idea of imagining catastrophes where there are none.
Your brain and mine don’t differentiate between real and imaginary, but interpret the thought you elaborate, being able to be real (there’s a bull chasing me) or imaginary (I won’t go to a place like that, I won’t say that, it won’t be that…..and yes…….). In these two situations, the mind interprets the threat, it will activate us and we will feel fear.
3-Write down these thoughts and become aware of them
Write in an article the situation that triggers the difficulty, the negative thoughts they generate and the degree of anxiety they produce. This is very helpful as all you have in your head is what you ask for when you write and this in turn makes you conscious.
Note that thoughts are catastrophic and negative, which, as I said before, are interpreted by your brain as real, which causes real discomfort that becomes anxiety.
A greater conviction on your part that what you think can lead to a greater level of discomfort, so you must doubt what you think. By giving it more importance it becomes solid for you, you become rigid and therefore it affects you more.
If these thoughts revolve around the same situation, try not to avoid it. This will lower the anxiety a little bit, but when we are in that situation, the anxiety will be triggered again at high levels.
You have to repeatedly expose yourself to this situation and you will find that every time the anxiety subsides, what is called the psychology of habituation takes place. This point is vitally important, as you will associate that being in this situation does not mean that everything you thought happened. He tests his own irrational thoughts.
4-Analyze the different possible interpretations of each situation
The same situation can affect different people differently. What someone poses as a problem for others is a typical day-to-day situation. Nothing is a problem in itself, but it will depend on the way it is interpreted, as I said before, and the options we have for other alternative interpretations for the same situation.
If you think that a situation has only one possible solution, why do you think so, according to your own arguments that you don’t put them to the test with other people and that no matter how much you think and think until exhaustion you can’t find one output, consider yourself a rigid person. .
If so, it will affect more the difficulties you encounter on a daily basis. Be flexible, don’t demand too much and focus on the solution, reserve energy to generate alternatives that can give you another perspective on the situation.
The self-record I mentioned earlier will be worth extracting alternatives from those rigid thoughts he wrote that are causing the level of discomfort. Focus on looking for possible alternatives to these thoughts, and find that when you find another, more positive thought, your level of discomfort will change.
With that, he will be telling the brain that this situation is not so bad either. Discuss the issue with others, safe in the knowledge that they see it differently, and add other ways of looking at your repertoire, don’t close. Think other people have solved it, learning from them will be very helpful.
5-Get to know the ABC model
This model is governed by cognitive psychology and is the key to understanding the role of thoughts, which I explain above. Aaron Beck, the father of cognitive psychology, in one of his books mentions a simple example which is what I usually use to explain to my patients the importance of thoughts.
Imagine it’s a windy day and you’re at home. Suddenly, the window starts making noise and you think it might be a burglar trying to get in through the window; then you feel scared and run away to call the police.
However, given the same situation, you might think that it is the wind that simply moves you a little, so as not to be afraid. See how your interpretation of the wind changes your mood, your emotions, what we’ve seen so far.
6-Doubt your thoughts, confront them
Thoughts should be taken as hypotheses, something to check.
Ask yourself:
- How likely is this to happen to me? From 0 to 100, what is the degree to which I think this thought?
- What data do I have for and against?
- Where is it written that this is so? Why you say that?
- Does the mere fact of what you think mean it’s true?
- Is everything you ever think true? Has something you thought or were convinced ever turned out to be false?
- Can I read other people’s minds? How do I know this is what you think? Is there a possibility that I’m wrong?
- Does thinking like this help me achieve my goals?
- Does it influence me to think like that in my mood?
- If someone close to you knows what you are thinking, how would that person react?
- How would someone solve the same situation?
- If finally what I think is true, what is the worst thing that can happen to me? Is it worth moving forward with the hypothetical consequences? Is it really a catastrophe?
- After questioning your thoughts, ask yourself again: from 0 to 100, to what degree do I believe this thought?
Now, taking advantage of the answers you gave to the previous question, elaborate an alternative and more realistic way of thinking, you will see how what you feel changes and, therefore, what you do.
“He who suffers before it is necessary, suffers more than necessary.”
7-Don’t try not to think
On many occasions, you try to avoid thinking so as not to have fun. We strive to avoid not thinking, get it out of your head. The result is that the opposite happens, this thought becomes more present and gains more strength.
A thought is nothing more than the connection of neurons, it has no entity as such, it comes and goes. If you attach importance, let’s say you are reinforcing that connection, and therefore the brain will misinterpret importance.
Imagine I tell you not to think about a white bear, to try not to think about a white bear, please try by all means not to think about it. Surely the first thing that came to my mind is that white bear, so you did the opposite of what I told you. If you’ve always tried not to think about this worry, and the opposite has happened repeatedly, try imposing the opposite on yourself.
Let the thoughts flow, don’t be afraid, because you think strange things; if you don’t mind, they will weaken on their own.
That he knows that we all think a huge amount of things a day, due to our imaginative capacity that we bring as a standard and that, from that, we think that comes true in a very small percentage. So let your imagination run wild and not the subject, it might even be fun.
8-Practice proper breathing
When we feel fear or anguish, our breathing becomes short and fast. This causes our pulses to race and the danger signal reaches the brain. Spend at least 20 minutes a day practicing diaphragmatic breathing.
Go to a quiet place and lie down comfortably on your back. Become aware of her breathing, breathe through her nose and focus on storing her in her stomach, swelling her up. Hold for 5-6 seconds and blow air through your mouth.
A trick is to place an object on the navel and try to raise and lower it, this way the diaphragm will be exercised. This is usually contracted by excessive tension, which I recommend deconstructing by going to a physiotherapist; you will see that you will notice the difference.
9-Learn relaxation techniques
A widely used technique is Jacobson’s progressive relaxation. It is a psychophysiological method, which consists of deliberately and systematically tensing and relaxing muscle groups to achieve two fundamental objectives:
- Eliminate muscle contraction.
- Replace it with a state of deep relaxation.
Basically, this type of relaxation consists of learning to tense and then sequentially relax various muscle groups throughout the body, while at the same time careful and rigorous attention is directed to the sensations associated with tension and relaxation. In this way, we become aware of the sensations of excessive tension and the difference between them and the sensations of relaxation.
To do this, sit as comfortably as possible, keep your head straight over your shoulders, and your back should touch the back of the chair. Spread your legs without crossing them and rest your feet on the floor. Place your hands on your thighs and focus on making your breath conscious.
Start by tensing your forehead for a few seconds and focus on feeling the tension; then let yourself go and feel the difference. Then we close the fist of the hand and tense it tightly, hold for a few seconds and then open the fist and feel the difference.
So with all muscle groups. You can look for a video on YouTube where I explain in more detail and enjoy its benefits.
10-Practice sport
This last step is very important. You should exercise and feel your body, see if the activation that occurs is normal and has nothing to do with anxiety symptoms. As you exercise more often and focus on the activity itself, the anxiety soon subsides.
Here you can read more about the benefits of sport.
These steps are the ones I’ve seen in many cases I’ve had in queries that work and that, if the person agrees to perform them and stops to reflect, they will get results.
