Anxiety, the exhausting, frustrating, relentless feeling we get that often feels like it consumes our entire lives. Anxiety is something we often cannot control. It’s something that people often choose to live with and control with medication rather than using other alternatives.

No matter how hard we try, we may never completely rid ourselves of our anxiety. We can push back, we can fight, and often succumb, or we can choose to use it to our advantage.

Anxiety can alert us to dangerous situations before they actually happen. It can also help us choose between right and wrong when the answer is too difficult to accept. Anxiety is a powerful tool that we can stop trying to prevent and manage, and learn how to hone it into something useful.

Anxiety is a neurological signal that can trigger fear, worry, jubilation, and most commonly, uncertainty. When anxiety becomes too much for us, it can cloud our focus and thought processing and hinder our ability to perform at optimal levels. It’s an emotional rollercoaster that can cripple us one moment and lead us to our fullest potential the next.

Too much anxiety is just that, it’s too much. But when we have a “normal” amount that keeps us grounded while motivating us, that’s the sweet spot we want. This is when we can capitalize and channel it into something effective.

The problem with this reactive behavior is that it not only may be an overreaction, but it can also make others unhappy which makes the situation worse. It’s a snowball effect. Part of the reprogramming we need to take is to respond, not react. By responding we take in the situation and determine a strategic course of action based on the situation.

Understand Your Anxiety

Too often, people panic when they have the slightest notion of anxiety. This could be a slight increase in heart rate, pupil dilation, sweaty palms, sweaty underarms, and shortness of breath. This isn’t your body trying to cause a panic attack, it’s your body preparing for a fight or flight situation. 

Anxiety will happen, it truly is impossible to 100% prevent it. By accepting and understanding how and where your anxiety arises will help you manage it. This is a change in your mindset so you are no longer fearful of anxiety, you’ll just become mindful of how to deal with it when it arises. You’ll no longer run from it. You’ll be prepared to handle it in different situations.

Take Action

No, you don’t need to sit on the couch and eat spoonful after spoonful of ice cream to prevent an anxiety attack. That’s not a positive action. Take action when anxiety arises by knowing where it stems from and why you feel that way. Do you feel anxious about a presentation for work that’s coming up? This is most likely caused by you feeling unprepared and by taking action to prepare, your anxiety levels will decrease.

You want to utilize your anxiety, not let it consume you.

Refocus and Realign

Anxiety stems from somewhere. It rarely just comes out of the blue to take hold. When it shows up, where did it stem from? It was caused by something and more often than not, it deserves our attention. By learning to better understand our anxiety, we can take notice of when, where, and how it arose so we can direct our attention to that action, thought, smell, to refocus and realign ourselves.

Find the Things That Matter to You

You’ll find out what matters most to you. If you notice someone who is put in an unfavorable situation, you may feel empathy towards them. If you know a coworker is lying about their work and it could have serious consequences for the company, you highly value honesty and trust. Anxiety can be used to help us find our core values so we can become better, more well-rounded individuals.

If we eliminated anxiety, we would lose our core values and big-picture views.

Learn How to Weight Your Life

People often talk about finding a balance in your life . Having a balanced life just isn’t possible. You need to learn how to weigh different elements of your life so you can make choices and manage your life effectively.

Anxiety will provide you with clues as to where your life may be out of balance. Anxiety can help you put different elements of your life into perspective so you can more positively channel your energy, time, and focus. Don’t let anxiety hinder different elements of your life. Learn how anxiety can help you better weigh different elements of your life.

Begin to Utilize Your Anxiety

By understanding our anxiety and where it stems from can help motivate us to become better, more alert individuals. It can help us take action and be used as a driving force behind our decision-making. We can stop to refocus and realign ourselves, our values, and look at our lives objectively to see where we may be improperly prioritizing different aspects of our life.

Anxiety is something that we all live with, some better than others. Our goal at Theta is to help you better manage and utilize your anxiety so you can refocus and realign yourself. You’ll find that you can better understand consequences, properly plan your next move, and better rationalize what the pros and cons of different situations are.

When not properly addressed, anxiety can be a trigger that leads to bad habits. Our GMS (Guided Meditation and Suggestion) therapy helps you reduce automatic, subconscious responses allowing you to focus on yourself. Refocus and realign yourself today.