How to Effectively Handle Feeling Anxious

Have you ever found yourself in a situation before meeting someone, as you prepare for an event, or perhaps before stepping outside your house, where you suddenly felt as though something was wrong? Perhaps you started breathing faster, your heart sped up, and you found yourself feeling a little sweaty, and your stomach in knots, in short – anxious. If so, you’ve experienced anxiety.

Anxiety is common to us all.

We all feel anxious at various points in our lives. What makes you anxious may not be the situation highlighted above. It might be that for you when you come across an animal like a dog or a snake you feel anxious. It could be that a situation like asking a question in class or during a work meeting feels like an ordeal. Whatever it may be, we all deal with anxiety in one situation or another.

One of the important questions to ask is how to effectively handle your anxiety, as that will make a huge difference in your quality of life. Anxiety can begin affecting the activities you choose to get involved in, especially if you begin to steer away from certain things that bring up those feelings of anxiety. Being able to understand your anxiety and ways to deal with it can help you make healthy choices that support your well-being.

Ways to effectively handle feeling anxious.

There are several ways available to you that can help you handle your anxiety effectively. Some of these include the following:

Accept that anxiety is a part of life.

We all get anxious, as that is part of our biological makeup. Anxiety is how our bodies respond to stressful and threatening situations. What each person finds threatening will differ, but our bodies react in more or less the same way, by releasing chemicals such as norepinephrine and cortisol.

These trigger several responses, including one’s heart beating faster, and so on. Accepting that anxiety is normal can help you deal with it when it crops up.

Understanding what triggers your anxiety.

As indicated above, each person has things that they are anxious about. You may be perfectly fine in tight and enclosed spaces, but your sibling or spouse might find that terrifying and anxiety-inducing. When you know what triggers your anxiety, you can prepare for situations where you might encounter those triggers.

It’s important to understand that coping with anxiety can be greatly helped by not avoiding your triggers. It may seem natural – after all, if dogs make you anxious, you should avoid them and anything related to them, right?

The downside of avoidance is that the anxiety only gets stronger, and when you’re next in an unavoidable situation involving dogs, your anxiety reaction will likely be stronger. Instead of avoidance, challenge yourself in small ways to face your fears.

Make self care a priority.

There are close connections between your body, mind, and emotions. If you consume sugary or caffeinated drinks or use nicotine and tobacco products, that can exacerbate your anxiety. Additionally, if you’re not getting good rest, that can affect your emotional state and prevent you from handling your emotions and thoughts effectively.

Taking care of your body through regular exercise is another way to not only help your body deal with cortisol (the stress hormone) but also improve your overall sense of well-being. Exercise doesn’t have to be intense – going for a walk, a bike ride, a swim, for some dancing – anything that gets you up and about regularly and that makes your heart do a little work is great for you, provided your doctor has given you the green light for it.

Learn effective coping mechanisms.

You can’t always avoid anxiety-inducing situations. It may be that your job or social setting requires you to enter that place or situation which makes you anxious. What do you do then?

It helps to know in those instances how to manage your breathing and reduce stress levels. Whether you use box breathing, 4-7-8 breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, or any other techniques to calm yourself, you can effectively deal with the symptoms of anxiety.

Seek help.

Anxiety is a normal part of life, but it can also become so overwhelming that it begins to disrupt daily life and functioning. If you find this to be the case, you should reach out to a medical professional such as a doctor or a counselor to ascertain the nature of your anxiety.

Some anxiety goes beyond what is typical, and it requires interventions such as medication and talk therapy to help you cope with and minimize symptoms. Search our directory or contact us today to find a faith-based counselor to walk you through the next steps.