anxiety - controling thoughts

The thingthathelped me most with anxiety is to have a physical job. I. Don't like the gym so much for my self. When I worked in shipping and recieving I had almost zero anxiety. When that job ended I would work in my garden as much as possible.Then the next physical job😁 would come along. Anxiety for me can't perpetuate itself while My body is in motion. Hope this helps.....😛

Good advice. What I tend to do is hit the bottle. Only makes things worse.

I think acceptance is a huge part of beating anxiety however the only way you can learn to accept it is to understand what is it in the first place! The very first thing I think it is important to understand is how other that being uncomfortable and an inconvenience to us the trith of the matter is that anxiety can not hurt us! 

We are familiar with the "fight or flight" expression. A perfectly rational reaction in which our mind convinces the rest of our body that something bad is going to happen to us. Suddenly we find our body being kicked into action with the extra adrenaline causing all of the trademark "panic" symptoms. For me the first step on the ladder is to understand that when this happens it is a perfectly normal reaction and that when this happens to us that we have two options. We can either allow it to beat us by getting worked up by it all and in theory making the whole thing far more uncomfortable or alternatively we can be rational and accept that it is happening to us however don't allow it to get the better of us!....Either way the only certainty is that it will come to an end and everything will return to normal again afterwards! No bad is going to come of it! None of the bad thoughts that we have are going to happen!.....Don't give it the attention that it wants as this will just intensify the whole thing for you and make a mountain out of a mole hill. You will be fine! Keep making sure you know this! Everything that is happening to you is merely temporary and it won't hurt you.

Once you come to understand that Anxiety is harmless you can learn ways of preventing it. Sitting waiting for something to happen again won't help you overcome things. It is important life your life as normal as possible and don't change your lifestyle due to anxiety!

Occupying the mind and keeping yourself nice and busy for me are the key to returning to normality. Excercising actually helps by burning up any unused adrenaline that you have kicking around the place and mentally having other things to fill our mind with naturally gives us less time to allow the negative thoughts to pop into our mind. 

For me I found DIY as a great way to grab my life back. I found the combination of a bit of physical graft, a bit of creativity and something really positive to focus on a great distraction from it all. It was perfect for me as it gave both my mind and body a good workout and showed me that my body was fine and that it could hack the hard graft! The fact that I put my body under a few days of natural strain proved to me that everything was fine! I even went on to treat myself to 2 weeks in the sunshine of Gran Canaria afterwards as a reward, something that I couldn't have imagined doing when I allowed anxiety to control me. 

In conclusion.........

1. Understand what axiety is and that it is a perfectly normal bodily reaction that can not hurt you! 

2. Accept that you have anxiety however now you understand what it is and that it can not hurt you learn to live with it and don't allow the uncomfortable moments get the better of you. They will go away again in the same way that they arrived and no bad what so ever will come of it. 

3. Live a normal life. Keep yourself active and don't make changes to accomodate anxiety!. Keep your mind and body busy as this will sub-consciously help you discover your normal self again.