Daily Anxiety Strategies When Worries Keep Overrunning Your Mind

Anxiety impacts millions of people all over the world. So much so, that anxiety and depression are the two most common mental health conditions across the globe. 

While people tend to respond to anxiety in different ways, the most common symptom is an underlying irrational fear. Anxiety can feel paralyzing at times and can even cause physical reactions like a racing heart, excessive sweating, and fatigue.

If worries keep overrunning your mind and impacting your quality of life, seeking out treatment for anxiety is the best thing you can do. Anxiety will not go away on its own, and it can quickly take over your entire thought process.

 In addition to professional treatment, there are strategies you can use every day to ease your anxiety symptoms and improve your quality of life. These approaches aren’t meant to “cure” the problem, but they can make your life easier, giving you a bit more control. 

What are some of these daily anxiety strategies that can make a big difference? 

Talk Yourself Down

When you break it down, anxiety is nothing more than your brain trying to convince you of dangers that aren’t really there. It’s a lot of self-talk that makes things seem scarier than they are. 

While it isn’t necessarily easy, one of the best habits you can get into is talking yourself down from those “scary” thoughts. Stop thinking in “what ifs” because you’ll always go to the worst possible scenario. Instead, focus on that scenario. If you make yourself aware of the worst possible situation and have a plan for what to do if it happens, it becomes less overwhelming. 

It’s also important to choose your inner dialogue’s words wisely. As your mind tries to scare you into believing certain things, you might find yourself using words like: 

• Hate
• Broken
• Stupid
• Ugly
• Always/never

Negative self-talk is a huge problem and will keep you down in many ways. When you’re aware of your negative self-talk, you can work harder to fight back against it and replace those negative words with positive ones. 

Be Mindful in the Moment

Mindfulness has gotten a lot of attention in recent years, but it’s for a good reason! It’s the practice of being in the present, often used along with meditation. When you practice mindfulness, you focus on your breathing and everything that’s going on around you at that very moment. 

Anxiety often shows up when you have nothing else to focus on, so your mind starts spinning. Give all of yourself to whatever you’re doing at that very moment. Let thoughts come and go freely, but don’t hang onto them. Instead, think of them as clouds passing by. With that strategy, all of the anxiousness and negative thoughts that typically try to cling to you can float by, and you don’t have to let them take control. 

If you’ve never meditated before, don’t let some of the stereotypes and stigmas fool you. Meditation and mindfulness can be as simple as finding a few minutes a day to practice deep breathing and intentional focus. 

Take Care of Yourself

Maintaining healthy lifestyle habits is actually one of the best strategies to combat anxiety on a daily basis. Make sure you’re getting enough sleep, eat healthily, drink plenty of water, and try to exercise every day.

When you focus on taking care of yourself, you’re giving your anxiety less power over your entire being. 

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As you can see, none of these strategies are difficult, and they can really help with any daily anxiety struggles you might have. But, if you continue to struggle, it could be time to seek out therapy to get to the root of your condition. Once you know more about what might be causing your anxiety, the easier it often is to treat it. 

If you’d like more information about my approach to anxiety therapy, please feel free to contact us.