Anxiety is a natural human emotion that all of us experience. It is essentially your body’s alarm system helping you to stay alert and react to danger, however, it is when anxiety becomes intense and starts to take over your life, that then needs to be addressed.
Anxiety is a very common mental health challenge that many people face, yet it is often difficult for people to talk about, and this can feel extremely lonely for some.
Common symptoms of anxiety include:
- Racing thoughts or constant worry
- Muscle tension, restlessness, or physical fatigue
- Trouble concentrating or sleeping
- A sense of dread, panic, or being on edge
Everyone experiences anxiety differently. For some, it might show up during specific situations, like social gatherings or public speaking. For others, it’s a more generalised, day-to-day struggle.
Coping with anxiety
Funnily enough… I am actually feeling very anxious today, hence why I have decided to write this blog post. I wanted to share how I deal with my anxiety and what coping strategies I use. So here are my top 5 coping strategies…
- Get your body moving: as you all probably know by now, this is my number 1 coping strategy, whenever I am feeling anxious, exercise is the way I instantly feel better and the anxiety goes away very quickly, this can be anything from going for a walk, run, yoga or training in the gym, let me tell you. IT WORKS SO WELL!!!!!
- Journalling: writing down your thoughts and feeling works better than you might think, especially if you would prefer not to talk about how you are feeling, this instantly give you some relieve from constantly ruminating, also writing down the things you are grateful can give you that positive uplift you may need.
- Breathing exercises: I like to use the “box” method when I am feeling anxious, its simple, breath in for 4 seconds, hold for 4 seconds and breath out for 4 seconds, wait for another 4 seconds before repeating. Give this a go.
- Talk about it: sometime when I am feeling anxious, I speak about to the people closest to me, doing this makes me feel less alone with my anxiety, so I would recommend, if you can, to speak to somebody that is close to you, this doesn’t have to be a “serious” chat but can just be a “I feel a little anxious today” this just releases some tension and also gives a chance for you to speak about it with those closest to you.
- Seek professional help: If you feel your symptoms getting worse or if this is starting to take over your day-to-day life, I have found it helpful to speak to a therapist, this has honestly been a HUGE help and one of the main reasons I have able to not let the anxiety take over my life, if you can I would highly recommend.
I hope this has given you a little insight into anxiety and helped you understand it more. These coping strategies are ones that I have learnt in therapy and have massively helped me with my anxiety, so if you feel like it, give them a go.
Lots of love x.