Deal with anxiety by looking it in the face

“Anxiety cannot be avoided, but it can be reduced, reduced to normal levels, and then used as a stimulus to increase attention and zest for life,” explains existential psychologist Rollo May in The Meaning of Anxiety (Institute for General Humanities Studies, 2011). Scientific research results and expert therapeutic experience suggest some ways to improve your well-being.

Move more often

Those who sit at their desk for more than six hours a day with little to no movement experience more anxiety and stress than those who sit for no more than three hours.

Psychologists from the University of Tasmania clarify that it is not a lack of physical activity, but rather a long period spent in immobility: those who sit at the table all day and go to the gym in the evening are just as likely to experience anxiety as those who after six hours of sitting, he goes home and lies down on the sofa. So the emphasis should be on the frequency of movements, and not on their intensity.

Voice your worries

When anxious thoughts take possession of you again, list them, the gestalt therapist Nifont Dolgopolov advises: “I always think that I don’t have time to complete the work on time …”, “I start to worry about …”. Then try to remember a situation when you had thoughts and feelings that now do not let go (“When I took on this project, I had a fear that I would not meet the deadlines …”).

Name the strongest emotion (“I’m mad at myself for getting into this story in the first place!”). Express it as clearly as possible, strengthening it with your voice, gesture, body movement (it is better to do this exercise in a secluded place where no one will bother you and where you can shout or make a sharp movement). The idea of ​​this exercise is simple: our unmanifested feelings and unfulfilled actions cause an endless movement of thoughts. As soon as we can express them, the cycle will stop.

Write what you think

Grab a piece of paper and start writing down whatever comes to mind. Not choosing words, not paying attention to spelling, not editing myself.

“This exercise gives an outlet for feelings and doubts and allows you to look at them from the outside,” explains psychotherapist Alexander Orlov. — The method of free association in psychoanalysis, the method of directed imagination in Jungian analysis is built on a similar principle. Any psychotherapy presupposes confidential and free communication, that is, the utterance of everything that really excites and disturbs.

Listen to music

Classics, rock, jazz — it doesn’t matter, the main thing is that you like this music. Only in this case does it cause a decrease in heart rate and respiration, blood pressure, muscle tension and oxygen uptake, which leads to a decrease in anxiety and stress. This effect is of particular importance in working with patients with anxiety disorders.

Look anxiety in the face

“Instead of habitually “escaping” from the symptoms of anxiety or panic, try not to try to escape from them, but to passively experience unpleasant sensations,” notes cognitive psychologist Yakov Kochetkov. — You will quickly see that even the strongest anxiety weakens, and unpleasant symptoms go away.

In the case of mild anxiety disorders, the principle of «Do what you fear» can be used independently — but it is better to start with a specialist: it can be difficult to correctly interpret the results yourself. In the future, each time we plunge into anxiety, we strengthen the belief that anxiety can be experienced.

Cultivate positive emotions

One of the pioneers of positive psychology, Martin Seligman, identifies the main tools that should be resorted to in order to enhance pleasant emotions. First of all, we must learn to savor pleasure: to slow down the pace of work, not to succumb to impulses to be distracted by vain activities, of which we always have a lot.

You need to take time to fully enjoy the joy of achieving what you want, to feel the satisfaction of the choice made. And also stop wanting more all the time, make your life easier and do the main thing. The best way to experience joy and enthusiasm is to devote more time to a cause that excites and fills your life with meaning.

Strengthen your faith in yourself

Over and over again, convinced of our own competence and ability to cope with difficulties, we thereby protect ourselves from anxiety, says cognitive psychologist Albert Bandura. Confidence can be drawn from your own experience, from memories of your successes and the pleasures associated with them — say, in exams or in sports.

Another way is to remind yourself of the people you admire and whose success motivates you. It is noteworthy that the more these people are similar to you in terms of age, gender, biography, career, the more likely that their success can add confidence to you.

Meditate

The fact that yoga, meditation, breathing exercises calm the mind, relax and relieve anxiety has been proven by so many studies that it would not make sense to remind you of this if … all this really was not so effective. By meditating (at least 10-20 minutes a day), we create our inner space, an “inner fortress”, which allows us to step back from the situation, calm down and be able to choose without interference what values ​​we act for, what meaning we give to our existence. .

By the way, such meditative activities as knitting, sewing, modeling, drawing are also a great way to create inner space for yourself and calm down. Biologist Jon Kabat-Zinn, neuroscientist Daniel Siegel, clinical psychologists Susan Orsillo and Lisabeth Roemer write about how to practice mindfulness, learn to tune your attention to the current moment, not letting yourself be distracted by anxious thoughts about the future. It is important to remember that we are largely responsible for ourselves and we have many more resources than we realize.