Tips for understanding and coping with Anxiety
Experiencing anxiety can be difficult to manage and frightening to many of us, it is also normal to feel varying levels of anxiety as human beings. The key is to ground ourselves, take deep breaths and be more gentle with ourselves as we learn to find healthy ways of coping
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Tips for Self care and Coping with Anxiety
1) Avoid avoidance
Avoidance maintains the cycle – it’s natural to want to avoid something that is difficult or distressing - it’s human nature. However, with anxiety, the more we avoid the situation that's causing the anxiety the more we reinforce the anxiety, which ultimately makes it more difficult to manage Working with anxiety and how it affects you personally is a good place to start
2) Develop awareness and understanding
Learn to understand how anxiety impacts us as a condition. There are some excellent books but, as with the internet, ensure you’re looking at reputable sources. It’s important to gain understanding in order to begin improving your mental wellbeing – break it into bitesize chunks and build on small successes.
3) Be Open
Talking with people you trust in your life can be very helpful. Anxiety is one of the most common difficulties that people in Ireland are facing. You might be surprised if you start talking to others about it that these people who may also share their own experiences with anxiety. It’s often a surprise to realise that anxiety is normal for each of us, its only when we start to struggle with it that we just need to figure it out, its origins and what triggers anxiety so we can learn to cope better
4) Breathe
Sit quietly in a chair and allow the chair to ground you, take some deep breaths down into your tummy and self soothe by reminding yourself how far you have come and your ability to deal with difficult situations.
5) Name
Name 5 things you can see, 5 things you notice around you and focus on each thing naming it. This tool takes you out of the anxiety provoking thoughts and helps to ground and support you.
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