Anxious thoughts can creep in our mind from time to time especially when we have lots of things running through our brain. There are some who can easily deal with their kind of stress but there are those who can’t seem to shake off their anxiety to the point that they have a hard time concentrating or even sleeping for that matter. You might think that keeping your anxious thoughts bottled up is the best thing to do but this can take a toll on you both mentally and emotionally.
According to scientific experts and researchers on cognitive problems such as anxiety, there are several techniques that can be applied to help your mind go back into a calm state. Here are some tips that you can try if you are feeling anxious about something.
- Cognitive diffusion. Learn how to remove yourself from your thoughts. The problem with us is that we are too sensitized to our thoughts that we can’t remove ourselves from it. This in turn triggers anxiety. By learning to let our thought processes flow without latching on to them, you will be able to choose which thoughts are more realistic than those that are not.
- Meditate. Sometimes we just need to learn to let go of all the thoughts that cause anxiety through meditation. Setting a time to meditate not only allows you to reach a calm state of mind but it can also teach your mind to become stronger to fight off stress that can trigger anxiety. Even 15 to 30 minutes of complete quiet while you learn how to untangle your jumbled thoughts can make a huge impact to your health.
- Stay present. There are times when our thoughts stray to the past as we try to analyze our experiences. Although this is a good practice to learn from our mistakes, lingering too much on all those that have hurt us or caused us pain is not healthy. Staying in the present is considerably better because you will be able to analyze what is happening at the moment so you will be able to deliver the best response to it.
- Pay attention to internal judgements. We tend to be afraid how others perceive us but you might be surprised to find that we are our worst critics. The way we criticize ourselves can actually do more harm than good as we struggle to improve ourselves just to quiet the internal critic that we have. By paying attention to your train of thought, you will be able to put a stop to the judgemental side of you so you can replace it with calming thoughts to reduce your anxiety.
- Keep your distance from negative thoughts. We can’t really stop ourselves from negative thoughts and self-talks but what we can do is to distance ourselves from them. If you notice your thoughts blaming you for forgetting something important back home, you can easily distance yourself from it.
- Get going. If you are the type of person who worries too much about something rather than trying to find a solution then you’re not really helping yourself at all. What happens is that your mind is stuck in a loop where you keep on replaying those harmful thoughts over and over again without really analysing it. This only feeds your anxiety rather than cure it so the next time you find your thoughts in this area, you need to find a way to break your train of thought. It’s actually easy like doing something else or simply getting up from your seat and walking around the block.
Source: newsflash.com.ng
