“I vow to let go of all worries and anxiety in order to be light and free.” – Thich Nhat Hanh
5 Bright Tips on How to Be Less Anxious
1. Act Like you want to feel not how you feel
This may seem strange but it works. Neurologists say that the subconscious mind is 21 days behind the conscious mind. So if we choose to act like we’re non-anxious, the sub-conscious will eventually catch up and behave in a non-anxious way.
2. Accept you are anxious and don’t try to change it
Remember it’s just a temporary state. If you think about it, your body and mind are working perfectly because they reacting to your current high anxiety, that’s the result of a finely tuned, receptive mind and body. The anxiety will naturally go down to ‘normal’ levels without you having to force the change.
3. Don’t believe everything you think
Negative thoughts are driven by high anxiety. When in an anxious state, your mind will do a risk assessment and create ‘what if’ thoughts. For example, ‘what if I can’t escape’, ‘what if I panic and faint’? This fuel the anxiety up, so learn to understand that these thoughts are unhelpful and pay them little or no attention at all.
4. There’s nothing physically or mentally wrong with you
Even though you might be experiencing awful sensations and negative thoughts, anxiety is not a physical or a mental illness. It’s just a temporary habitual state that can be reversed.
5. Don’t be so hard on yourself
So what, you’re anxious! You just have too much of the emotion of fear just like some people have too much of the emotion of anger or joy. The good thing about emotions is they can be controlled, learnt, unlearnt and they are changeable.
Emotions aren’t fixed and aren’t in control of your mind. On a contrary, you’re in control of them, even though it might not feel like that sometimes or at this moment.