It can be difficult to navigate a normal day-to-day life when anxiety looms constantly in the background; and it's tough to pinpoint effective anxiety-reducing techniques. Everyone experiences anxiety differently, and so what works for one may not be as effective for someone else.
Anxiety can result from a variety of situations, events and/or environments, and is often a symptom of other mental health disorders such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Major Depressive Disorder, and Borderline Personality Disorder. However, anxiety can also manifest into its own psychological disorder, and is not always aggravated by specific events or situations.
Take Generalized Anxiety Disorder (or GAD) for example, which is characterized by chronic worrying. It's as though your "normal" disposition is of relatively heightened anxiety- as though there's always a simmering inside of you that may begin to boil at any moment.
Most times, however, we are able to (eventually) pinpoint a sort of trigger for our anxiety, whether by pattern recognition, or actively using anxiety exercises to do so. It isn't always realistic to expect you can simple "avoid" these triggers, and so it's especially important to find skills that work for you.
I'm going to begin by walking you through an exercise that helps me a great deal with a lot of my situational-anxiety. It is a kind of mesh between a few different activities I've worked on with a previous therapist- If you haven't read our blog post on "Cognitive/Thinking Distortions", you will want to read that first, by clicking here.
This exercise combines the use of identifying your feelings and thoughts, acknowledging any underlying (perhaps subconscious) beliefs and determining whether you are engaging in any cognitive/thinking distortions. Doing so allows you to dissect the situation and make some sort of peace of what was naturally very overwhelming. I'll include an explanation of the exercise and will also include a real-life example from my own CBT journal.
Hopefully this exercise works for you- If not, however, keep an eye out as I will be posting more techniques throughout our journey together.
Date: You can include the date and time if you are planning to look for patterns within your anxiety/anxiety attacks.
Onset: What was the situation or event surrounding your spike in anxiety?
Feelings: What exactly are you feeling? How do you feel? Try to use single words here and identify the feelings on their own.
Thoughts: What thoughts can you pinpoint acting alongside what you are feeling?
Beliefs: Are you able to distinguish any (perhaps subconscious) beliefs that may be at the core of these thoughts and feelings? IE: I'm not good enough; Everyone will hurt me; I'm not safe; I'm a failure...
Cognitive Distortions: Which cognitive Distortions might you be playing into with these beliefs?
(You can find a list of them here).
Positive Actions: This part is optional, but when I am able to, I try and put a fact or an action that moves me in the right direction, away from my anxiety. Whether this is challenging the belief (a past therapist always told me to only do this when you truly mean it-- And I believe you should do the same), or doing something to distract yourself from the situation at hand.
Here is an example from my own CBT journal;
Date: Not Applicable
Onset: Could not breathe during a hot yoga class- I felt as though I were being suffocated.
Feelings: Panic, Fear, Frantic-ness, In Danger
Thoughts: I can't breathe; I'm going to die.
Belief: I'm not safe; I need to get out of here; I'm going to die.
Positive Actions: Practiced mindfulness technique; Looked around me, being mindful of where I am, and who is around me to assure myself that I will be okay, and focused then on the voice of the instructor while laying in Shavasana pose and breathing deeply.
I am now challenging all of you to try out this exercise, at least 2-3 times, to see if it works for you! CBT has been one of the most effective techniques in managing anxiety, but this is only one of the very many exercises falling under this branch of therapy.
Keep an eye out for more posts on Anxiety, and how you can manage your symptoms!
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You can also check out some of Alycia's Art Therapy pieces for sale on her Etsy Shop; Alycia's Spot.
You can also check out some of Alycia's Art Therapy pieces for sale on her Etsy Shop; Alycia's Spot.
