Everyone feels anxious from time to time, but prolonged anxiety or heightened states of anxiousness can be extremely debilitating.
The mind is an extremely powerful tool and often anxiety originates from the thoughts in our mind. In fact, it is often our thoughts and not our external situations that cause us to feel anxious.
If you want to learn to relieve anxiety naturally, taming the mind is often the first step.
Here are five simple ways you can curb feelings of anxiousness by tapping into the power of your mind.
1.) Stay In The Present Moment
Anxiety often occurs when you start thinking about the future or focusing on things that are not in your control. When you bring your awareness to the present moment however, it allows you to feel in control. This in turn, allows you to feel a sense of peace and calmness. When you feel anxiety creeping in, take a deep breath and try to bring your awareness to the present moment. To help with this, point out seven things in your environment that stand out to you. By doing this, it helps you to focus on your current surroundings and stops you from getting swept away in worrisome thoughts of the future.
2.) Accept Your Circumstances
One of the best ways to relieve anxiety is to bring acceptance to your current situation or to whatever is causing you to feel anxious. If you have a stressful situation to deal with or even stressful thoughts, consider accepting them just as they are. When you bring acceptance to your life, it allows you to not only feel a sense of peace and understanding but it also helps to inspire solutions. Acceptance doesn’t mean you have to tolerate the situation, but through accepting it allows you to focus on what is in your control rather than what is not. The next time you feel a wave of anxious energy about a situation or event, consider just accepting things as they are and see if this helps to inspire a new way of looking at things.
3.) Focus On What Is Working
When you focus on all the things that are going wrong in your life it is easy to feel anxious, but when you focus on all the things that are going well, it allows you to feel positive and thankful. If you feel anxious thoughts arising, consider focusing on all the things that are going well in your life rather than getting caught up on the things that are not going well. When you focus on all the good things in your life it puts you in a positive mood which then gives you the energy and motivation to make productive changes.
4.) Visualize The Outcome You Desire
You can use the power of your mind to visualize the outcome you desire or even to escape to a relaxing beach destination. The next time you feel anxious, take a few minutes to visualize things going as smoothly as possible. You can also choose to visualize a happy memory or even just your favorite beachside location. By visualizing the outcome you desire, it tricks your mind into relaxing and helps you to feel uplifted and relaxed about the situation.
5.) Stop Over-Analyzing
Incessant thinking or analyzing can also lead to stress and anxiety. While it is fine to think about a situation, if you find yourself going over and over events in your mind, it is likely that you are going to feel anxious. If you notice a repetitive habit of thinking, try to distract your mind by engaging in something else. You can mediate, do something creative, watch a movie or even read a good book. Try your best to not engage in repetitive thinking, at least for the remainder of the day. Usually after a good night of rest it allows you to have a fresh perspective and perhaps you will even see things from a different point of view.
The mind is an extremely powerful tool and when you learn to make it work for you rather than against you, it can radically transform your life and ease any anxious thoughts.