Anxiety techniques...or Anxiety no more?!
ANXIETY TECHNIQUES
There is a lot of research and advice on the internet about anxiety techniques and ways to reduce anxiety, but which techniques are the most effective? And could there be a better solution?
Anxiety can be broadly described as "an abnormal and overwhelming sense of apprehension and fear often marked by physical signs".
As anxiety is an issue that affects many people across the world, there any many different schools of thought about what causes it. Moodjuice suggests a number of factors that contribute to a person experiencing anxiety, primarily “Life events”, “Thinking styles”, “Evolutionary reasons” and “Biological reasons”.
After briefly describing these mechanisms, I will discuss the current recommended anxiety techniques, and what you can do to have anxiety no more!
LIFE EVENTS: anxiety may develop after a stressful life event, or it could be the result of a number of different pressures all occurring in the same period of time, leaving us to feel that we cannot cope. They also suggest that people can learn to be anxious if in the past they suffered life events which created anxiety previously.
THINKING STYLES: people that suffer with anxiety have a tendency to think about and predict the worst case scenario, also known as catastrophizing. This can lead people to find it difficult to switch off.
EVOLUTIONARY REASONS: Anxiety is an unpleasant experience that can put us in a state of fight or flight. This can ready us for immediate action in the face of a threat or help us survive in the case of an attack, and so over many hundreds of years feeling s of anxiety have been crucial in our ability to survive.
BIOLOGICAL REASONS: It has also been suggested that there are familial ties and that if someone in your family experiences anxiety; there may be a genetic component to it.
SELF HELP TECHNIQUES
There are many possible ways in which you may attempt to help yourself deal with anxiety, Below is what Mind.org recommend as a list of the most common and effective ways to reduce anxiety. We will then discuss if there could be a better alternative…
1. FACING YOUR FEARS
2. TALK TO SOMEONE YOU TRUST
3. BREATHING/RELAXATION EXERCISES
4. MUSIC
5. DISTRACTIONS WITH GAMES/PUZZLES
6. ACKNOWLEDGING FEELINGS AND WAITING FOR THEM TO PASS
7. PHYSICAL EXERCISE
8. KEEP A DIARY
9. HEALTHY DIET
10. COMPLIMENTARY THERAPIES
11. SUPPORT GROUPS
STILL STRUGGLING?
Many people have tried all of the above techniques and yet are still significantly struggling with feelings of anxiety, so what if there was a better way?
A Body Mind Worker practitioner could help resolve feelings of anxiety, so that you are free to move on with your life.
If we consider the points raised at the beginning of the blog, what if all of those ‘causes’ were one and the same?
Let us examine this from a Body Mind Worker perspective…
Anxiety is a biological process that has served a crucial role in our survival as a species (Steimer 2002). Anxiety is triggered when the Amygdala – a primitive part of the brain wired up to keep us alive, perceives a threat, whether this be actual or imagined.
So what causes the amygdala to engage?
“The screen”, is a below conscious area that the mind uses to store and code information, and is unique to each individual. The information “on screen” is what the mind uses to inform the system as to what is going on in the world around us.
If information ‘on screen’ is perceived by the amygdala as a threat – it can trigger the fight and flight response, and lead to feelings of anxiety.
How does information on screen become perceived as a threat?
As we go through life, we will learn many things and we will encounter many different environments, and meet many different people. There will be many experiences that we could consider positive and pleasant, through which we learned valuable information and took that learning forwards with us. Unfortunately, there will likely be several or even many that are considered negative, or even traumatic.
As our unconscious mind is designed to keep us alive, when we have one of those so called negative or traumatic events, our mind will store information ‘on screen’ so as to protect us in the future. This may be in the form of encouraging us to avoid or alter our behaviour so as to not experience it again (e.g – burning your hand on a stove), or to serve as a reminder that there is some learning that we need to achieve or a part of our self that needs validating and/or acceptance, in order for us to fully process an experience and move on.
As each of our lives are so different, and we are all unique, each person will store and code information on their screen in different ways – one of the wonders that makes us human!
So if you are experiencing feelings of anxiety, there will likely be some information on screen that is causing your system to perceive a threat and trigger feelings of anxiety.
Much of the time, the initial ‘incident’ that caused information to be stored on screen is from childhood, when we had a limited amount of resources. This is also when we absorb information from those around us the fastest, primarily from our parents, family members and friends, and so it may be here that we ‘learn’ how to do anxiety.
Fortunately, whatever we learn, we have the ability to un-learn it, and to re-learn something else. Another wonder of being human!
When we are older we have access to many more resources, often even more than we may realise, and so a Body Mind Worker practitioner has the aim of facilitating you to clear your screen, and access all of the many resources that reside inside of each and every one of us.
Based on the communication patterns we learned as a child and those that we use as adults, we each filter information differently, and depending on what our ‘state’ is at any given time, we will adopt certain thinking and language patterns. Through Body Mind Workers we can learn how our minds work, and become more efficient at choosing our state, and therefore learn how to think differently.
So if you would like to find out how your mind works, update the information on your screen, and overcome feelings of anxiety, or if you have any questions, feel free to contact me here.
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