7 Tips and Techniques to Reduce Anxiety

There are several basic techniques that can be used to reduce nervousness and anxiety, and these are based upon those described by Henrik Edberg. 

According to 2012 report by the National Alliance on Mental Illness:

• “Approximately 6.7 percent of American adults−about 14.8 million people−live with major depression.

• Approximately 18.1 percent of American adults−about 42 million people−live with anxiety disorders, such as panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), generalized anxiety disorder and phobias.

• When someone feels anxiety, they feel intense feelings of nervousness.  These symptoms include:  increased heart rate, heart palpitations, sweating or chills, feeling of doom or dread, feeling like passing out and feeling like having a heart attack.  The following are some techniques to help stop anxiety." 
  

7 Techniques to Reduce Anxiety

1. Breathing:  Take 15-30 belly-breaths.  Taking deep breathes can help reduce feelings of anxiety and can help to promote feelings of calmness.  Taking a deep slow breath though your nose and releasing through your mouth 15 to 30 times can have a powerful impact on releasing anxiety.  
2. Seek Information:. Anxiety can come from a feeling or powerlessness or uncertainty. Finding out information about what is bothering you or ways to resolve issues can help decrease anxiety.  Read books, articles, self help book, or Google to get information.
3. Refocus:  Focus on the positive.  It is easy to constantly perpetuate negative self-talk, but thinking of life as a glass half full can help to alleviate your anxiety.  When you can shift your thoughts from negative to positive, it cannot only change your thought direction; it can improve your overall mood.  If your thoughts are really intense, you can distract yourself by watching a tv show, go to a movie, listen to music, exercise, or spend some time with friends. 
4. Eat & Sleep well:  Eating right sounds so obvious.  However, when we take care of our bodies, it provides us with a solid foundation to combat anxiety.  Eating correctly can keep your body functioning efficiently through keeping your blood sugar levels balanced, which helps decrease stress and can keep mood levels stable.  Sleeping for 7 to 8 hours per day can also help decrease anxiety and stabilize mood, because sleeping helps your body and brain to rest and reboot.  While sleeping can be challenging for those with stress and anxiety, it is important to figure out ways that help you to relax and get rest.  Using deep breathing, meditating or drinking tea can help calm you so you can get some rest. 
5. Determine if your thinking is productive:  When your thoughts are racing, it's important to stop and ask yourself, “What am I thinking? Are my thoughts realistic?  Is there a possible solution?   If you come to the realization that you are thinking with thinking errors, such as assuming the worst or all or nothing thinking, you can change your thoughts.  If you recognize your thought as negative and unproductive, change the way you think.  This is called thought replacement.
6. Recognize the feeling:  When you are anxious or stressed, it can be helpful to acknowledge the feelings and sensations.  Recognizing the feeling does not mean that you have to *like* the feeling, but rather, it means you are aware that the feeling is occurring.  Recognizing the feeling can allow you to push it out of your mind, or “to let it go”.  It allows you to experience the feeling and then gain control by letting go.  Letting go of negative thoughts can help you to focus on the positive.  It also allows you to understand what is happening and work towards a solution. 
7. Be Present Now:  Focusing on the here and now can help decrease feelings of anxiety and help to decrease feelings of shame and remorse.  Anxiety can come from deep feelings of remorse and shame in addition to the painful “could have, should have” feelings.  In addition, it can decrease worry about the future.  Focusing on the here and now helps to stay mindful of what is occurring now.  Mindfulness meditation is a great way to stay focused on the present.  There are many resources online to help learn how to effectively use mindfulness meditation to stay focused on the here and now.  

Finding ways to release anxiety and lessen worry is vital to your emotional and physical well being.  Find ways that help you to relax.  Since we are all different, try multiple techniques to deteremine what is best for you.  

- Kim B.


Insightful Comments


My family of five was, more recent than not, uprooted from a life that we had been building together for over ten years. We rather abruptly relocated from our home to another state and began living in a home with my single mother, and the trauma that my family experienced was nearly beyond measure. It affected all five of us, our family dog, as well as my mother and her dog. We moved into a much smaller structure with less privacy and that has certainly stunted our personal growth, collectively and individually.

For the ladies reading this article, imagine for a moment, leaving all of your friends and moving four states away into a house with your mother-in-law. Now, wake-up! For you that was only a dream, for my wife and children that has become our lives.

We had to leave jobs that we enjoyed in order to arrive with nothing available. It took me five months to obtain a temporary position that was less than one-third of my previous income. Meanwhile, it took my wife another five more months to find a position, slightly comparable to her former employment. It was and is humbling.

The most significantly impacted member of our family was our oldest daughter. She was uprooted during her junior year of high school, so she left friends of more than a decade, more than half of her life. She was ripped apart and could not see her life being anything less than miserable. Her desires and ambitions to achieve a ‘normal’ level of healthy adolescent development were non-existent. 

She abandoned the progress she had made in academics, and she no longer wanted to get her driver’s license, a normal right of passage for a sixteen year-old. She avoided making new friends when she enrolled in her new school, sequestered herself in her room, hiding even from family. She chose isolation over connection, which has been an ongoing heart-break for us.

Our daughter’s anxiety mirrored the anxiety of her parents (us), where my wife and I had become very standoffish in our interpersonal interactions with others. We were certainly avoiding the establishment of new friendships or relationships outside of our fabulous five, and in the process we were sabotaging our own opportunity for personal growth.

We went to church. We went shopping. We went to the movies. We did most anything we wanted, but we did not participate in anything outside of our ‘fab five’. 

However, one day my wife addressed our oldest child, “I am very concerned for you. You are watching life pass you by. You simply are choosing not to participate in your own life.”  Our daughter replied with, “Neither are you and Dad.”

Her words were humbling but needed, and uncomfortable but necessary. Not only did she need to choose to participate in her life, so did we. Living and participating in the present is what's required for a fulfilling life experience, and so we carry onward to make these changes and transform our lives together.

- Bergen

Edberg, H. (n.d.). Put a Stop to Your Anxiety with These 8 Simple Tips. Retrieved January 8, 2015, from http://www.positivityblog.com/index.php/2007/06/08/put-a-stop-to-your-anxiety-with-these-8-simple-tips/