When I bring attention to my breathing—and remember to breathe from my diaphragm, not my chest—I am able to calm myself down a notch, or at least control my hysteria (so that I can wait five minutes before bursting into tears, which means I avoid the public cry session, which is preferred).
9. Break the Day Down
One cognitive adjustment that helps relieve anxiety is reminding myself that I don’t have to think about 2:45 p.m., when I pick up the kids from school and how I will be able to cope with the noise and chaos when I’m feeling this way, or about the boundary issue I have with a friend—whether or not I’m strong enough to continue putting myself first in that relationship. All I have to worry about is the very second before me. If I am successful at breaking my time down that way, I usually discover that everything is fine in this present moment.
10. Use Visual Anchors
My therapist looks up to the clouds. They calm her down in traffic or whenever she feels anxious. For me it’s the water. I don’t know if it’s because I’m a Pisces (fish), but the water has always calmed me down in the same way as Xanax, and since I don’t take the latter (as a recovering alcoholic, I try to stay away from sedatives), I need to rely on the former. So I just downloaded some “ocean waves” that I can listen to on my iPod when I feel that familiar knot in my stomach. I also have a medal of St. Therese that I grab when I become scared, a kind of blankie to make me feel safe in an anxious world.
11. Repeat a Mantra
My mantras are very simple: “I am okay” or “I am enough.” But one Beyond Blue reader recites what she calls a “metta mediation.” She claims that it slowly changes the way she responds to things in her day. She says to herself:
- May I be filled with loving kindness
- May I be happy, and healthy
- May I accept myself in the moment right as I am
- May all sentient beings, be at peace, and free from suffering.
As I described in my post, Nine Ways Humor Can Heal, flexing your funny bone does much more than relieving any crushing anxiety. It lowers your immune system, diminishes both physical and psychological pain, fights viruses and foreign cells, heals wounds, and builds community. You have no doubt experienced a moment when you were crippled by anxiety until someone made you laugh out loud, and in doing so anxiety lost its hold over you. Why not laugh all the time, then?
By Therese Borchard for BeliefNet
Updated on February 7, 2011
