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How to overcome anxiety and worry
© dhammza
This is a very important thing to understand about overcoming anxiety and worry:
It’s impossible to control thinking when you’re anxious.
Anxiety is a “fight or flight” state. It’s do or die, survival…
It’s a state that is intended to save your life. In the modern world we have so many pressures on us that just were not there as human beings evolved.
Anxiety has nowhere to go
And so we become anxious when we cannot fight or run. And all that anxious energy has NOWHERE TO GO. That’s very important background information to know before you can deal with this…
If you’re anxious, you won’t be thinking clearly OR rationally because the fight or flight state is not designed for you to solve problems, it’s designed for one thing only…. to save your life!
Many changes take place in your body in this state, digestion stops (it’s also hard to eat anything), and blood is pumped into muscles and away from inner organs. All sorts of changes happen that will help you run away or fight for your life.
So what to do?
Quick and long term solutions to anxiety problems
The quick answer lies in immediate EXERCISE. The way to turn an anxious state around very quickly is to work hard. RUN. That’s what the fight or flight state is designed for in the first place. Exercise (and removing yourself from the triggering event if there is one) will bring your body back to a neutral state.
The long-term answer lies in good lifestyle habits. Regular relaxation, changing the way you react to anxiety triggers, exercise, diet and organization habits that massively reduce or remove anxiety and stress in the first place.
The antidote to anxiousness is relaxation. It’s the opposite physiological state to “fight or flight.” So by changing your lifestyle for the better you can program yourself to be a very relaxed person. You can support your body so that it copes much better with stress.
Removing the trigger
And let’s not forget the obvious. Where possible avoid the triggers of stress. Now a lot of people will tell you you have to “face your fears” and that is partly true. You don’t have to face it in one go! That doesn’t work!
What works is WINS. Getting a win and moving forward is what works. So don’t put yourself in stressful situation that you can avoid unless it’s a baby step, unless you are fairly confident of a win.
Summing up
I repeat… It is IMPOSSIBLE to have rational thoughts OR control your thinking when you are anxious.
But don’t despair, there’s lots you can do. Look to your lifestyle and learn new coping strategies for dealing with anxiety and one day you’ll see it as a distant memory.
The lifestyle elements are powerful influencers of your mood and your state.
You CAN be relaxed and happy again! Habit Guide will show you how…
All the best,
Mike Kinnaird
Habit Guide: How to be Happy & Healthy
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Hi Mike.
I have awful stomach pains and nausea and feel sick everyday. It is an awful way to live and it is affecting my life very badly. I cant even work. I have had all the tests done at doctors and am on medication but nothing is taking away this awful stomach problem. What is really odd though is that if something else is happening in my life, such as a holiday away or some other medical problem, then this feeling goes away. Psychiatrist says its anxiety. I try to do relaxation meditation and everything that is suggested to me, but honestly nothing helps. I am so sick of living like this, its awful to feel sick every day. any idea what I can possibly do?
Hiya John,
Yes, Follow the Habit Guide way to the letter. Take it to bed with you every night and read it, devour it, make it your sole focus. Nothing in there is impractical. Everything is as clear as clear could be. And I will help you with anything you don’t understand.
Commit to a happy and healthy life and I’d put serious money on your troubles going away. Eat the food and only the food humans are designed for. Do this and all this other stuff with gusto and enthusiasm and see. Look what happened when you committed to just part of it… the distraction method… what great results you got. But DO IT ALL John and wow…. amazing things are possible.
In Habit Guide… “If you have ANY chronic illness AT ALL, then no grains or dairy products!”
Have to ask you….do you EVER get stressed out anymore? Had to ask… :-)
Not really :-)
Stressful feelings are a warning light for me to change something or move away. Intolerance of stress is a feature of CFS/ME. One likely theory is that stress hormones switch on the virus responsible. Makes a lot of sense. Anyway, I quickly learnt to avoid ALL stress because it was devastating to me. I’d be in bed for days…
I now know that stress is mainly self-induced. It seems like the external event is causing it but mostly no, it’s our reaction. Like fear too — false evidence appearing real :-) You can become so calm that you just take eveything in your stride and whatever comes is just dealt with as it comes.
Good habits are key to low stress… everything in a system that auto-takes-care of everything that needs your attention… we might want to call it “regular actions” in fact we do :-)
Zero negative stress is best… make it your aim. Remove the stressor, change your reaction or get the hell out.
That makes total sense… too bad it’s so hard to do! I guess so many of us search/strive to find/create the “perfect environment” where stress will no longer exist. But that’s a fallacy; there will always be stressful situatutions as long as we keep perceiving them to be so.
Thanks Mike
“Perceiving them to be so.” That’s massive isn’t it.
If you’re stuck in the environment, then there’s still a HUGE amount can be done with changing/removing the stressor and changing yourself including your perceptions. Regular meditation and relaxation before sleep — when practiced as habits make a massive difference. Good sleep, good diet, lowering your overall stress levels by being organized. Everything affects everything else. The whole Habit Guide system moves you into calm, into happy. Trust it, ponder it, do it, experience it :-)
Thanks Mike you doing great to us even young people we appreciate your work.
Could you please also talk on drug abuse? It’s rampant.
Mike, what’s makes someone lose weight without any illness?
Some of my pals claim the reason to be my studies which demands a lot of attention. Please help
God bless.
Hi George,
If you’re losing weight, you’re not eating enough food. Your pals are probably right… focused attention in one area means less attention to looking after yourself. But whatever the situation, I recommend looking after yourself be your No.1 priority… then you’ll be feeling great with lots of energy and a sharp mind to bring to your study.
Another factor could well be background low level anxiety which reduces appetite. To remove anxiety means a mindset shift… you could make a decision to allocate x time to study and give your best effort in the time you have, but no worry. Desire to do well is one thing, worry is another. I don’t know if this applies to you but it’s something to ponder.
Get your daily diet planned out so you have a solid structure with plenty of fruits and veg planned in. Then all you need do is repeat every day to make sure you have great nutrition and don’t lose more weight. If you need help with this, I’ve done all the hard work for you in Habit Guide.
What do you want to know about drugs?
Hi my name is frida.I had a 19 week misscariege.4 weeks later I started feeling tense in my lower abdorman.I went to the doctor he checked me and gave me antidepressent tablets.a week later I started feeling breathless and was constantly concentrating on my breath.it took me 5 days and I started speaking to my friend she told me she had the same thing.it basicly comes from a trauma.she recomended me to take b12 and a remedy.I took it and after 2 days started feeling all good.I was very desprate to get pregnant.a few weeks later I got pregnant.and I was diagnosed with a urine infection.I was starting to panic cuz that’s the way I got my miscariage.but I took antibiotics and it heeled.by 14 weeks they told me to stich my cervix cuz it was soft.suddenly I started getting phobeas and fear and stress.it got worse n worse!I went to america and I started feeling like my boddy wasn’t with me I felt I was in a dream started looking around and pannicing inside me if I’m a human being!all these strange fears and feelingsm.weeks later I walked on the street and felt even worse every thing that rolled on the floor I jumped from it got shocks one after the other.started thinking maybe the shocks can harm my baby!made me even more anxious.then I had the stage weather I’m in depression or not.I would love to know what’s the best technick in help could be.should I do relaxations every day?should I take b12?cuz I forgot to say that when I had the urine infection dr told me to stop taking b12.
So stopped but when I got critical I started taking it again.
Please help me asap!!
Hi Frida,
I’m sorry to hear about your suffering. While there are short term solutions that can help you, they will usually only provide temporary relief. The truth is that with any on-going problem, there are multiple underlying factors that are the true causes that need to be addressed.
Even when there is a single identifiable cause such as trauma, the effects quickly begin to add new causes… poor quality sleep, disturbed relationships, social withdrawal, emotional eating etc.
So short term, you can use things like exercise and breathing into a paper bag to control the symptoms of anxiety and hyperventilation. Long term you need to address all lifestyle and thinking issues that together create the outcome of anxiety.
By taking a multi-pronged strategy you can get lots of factors working together to re-create your health and peace of mind. These factors are the obvious ones… good sleep, optimum diet, relaxation, meditation, getting organized, learning how to deal with worry and unwanted thoughts etc.
So we always need a multi-pronged strategy for chronic problems.
Please read Habit Guide. It will give you this clear new mindset, as well as “what to do and how to do it”.
~ Mike
Hi Mike,
I m 21 yrs old, a few time ago i was fit nd f9, but a tregidy occured in my life,than i took drug for just 5-6 times to relaxe myself,but now i left drug forever,now the problem is that i m looking v.weak just like 15 years,while my age is 21 years.
plz send me the cure or techniques to be healthy according to my age 21years. for this act of kindness i ll ever remain great full to U.
regards
Waheed Ali
Student of Computer Science @ university of Sindh,Pakistan.
Hi Waheed,
Here’s some articles to point you in the right direction…
http://www.habitguide.com/the-big-stuff-of-health-and-happiness
http://www.habitguide.com/lifestyle-blueprint
http://www.habitguide.com/healthy
http://www.habitguide.com/the-importance-of-lifestyle
~ Mike
sir i am from india .i have been facing problem of OCD since my early childhood. i am 24 years of age.i face problem of anxiety whenever some work is on my handmostly in examination halls during papers time!i fail to concentrate and instead give attention to irrelevant things.please guide me.. i will be highly obliged.
Hi Atul,
There’s a huge amount already written on habitguide.com about OCD and unwanted thoughts. The best thing is to have a read of what’s already there… including the comments which have a lot of extra info and then get back to me if you’re confused about anything. Click below to see all articles about “OCD.”
http://www.habitguide.com/index.php?s=ocd
You can also use the search tool on the right hand side of every page to search habitguide.com for keywords like “OCD” or “unwanted thoughts.”
All the best,
Mike
thanks mike for the advice!!