5 Techniques To Help Relieve Anxiety Fast

Picture it. You’re out, enjoying your life, and your anxiety flares up. Suddenly your heart is racing, you’re short of breath and you feel the urge to run screaming out of the room. It sounds like a terrible problem, right? That is the reality for many of us living with anxiety….especially now during COVID-19. The unfortunate thing is that you can’t just run screaming from the room. Anxiety symptoms can crop up anywhere, from the boardroom to the pickup line at school, and when those thought patterns begin, we need to know how to counteract them. There are many techniques to employ, but here are a few that have been known to stop anxiety pretty quickly.  Here at Oasis Center, we are not exempt from feeling anxious and we serve people dealing with anxiety all the time.  So we wanted to provide a shortlist to help you deal with your anxiety.

"Anxiety doesn’t have to run your life. Give yourself some time to master these techniques."

The grounding technique

Anxiety is commonly caused by something in the future or the past disturbing you. One of the ways you can avoid anxiety is by remaining in the present. Grounding brings you back into the present so you can focus on what is happening around you in the current moment. To try an easy grounding exercise, look for 5 green objects in the room. The process of sorting through the current place that you are in helps to bring you back to the present and gets you out of your anxiety cycle. 

Deep breaths

Anxiety can cause your heart to race and for your breathing to become shallow. One of the ways to get your body to begin to slow and return to normal is if you concentrate on your breathing. Slow deep breaths will help to calm down the panic that your body has been thrown into and return you to a state of calm. 

Contradict negative thinking

Anxiety can serve up many thoughts that aren’t positive. Oftentimes we accept those thoughts without challenging them. Those types of negative thoughts can multiply in our heads quickly and overwhelm us. It is time for us to start talking back to those negative thoughts. When your mind serves you up negative thoughts such as “ you’ll never amount to anything” talk back to it. List your accomplishments. Challenge those negative thoughts, and don’t let them take root in your subconscious.

Declutter

The inside of our homes can often reflect the inside of our minds. Clutter piling up can make our anxiety levels rise. Be certain to keep your house as free and clear as possible. Get rid of things you are no longer using, and don’t let items pile up. Bonus: you can use the look of your house as a barometer to ensure your mental health is on part with where it needs to be. 

Notice your feelings without giving them lots of energy

Your feelings are valid, but that doesn’t mean that every feeling you feel is worthy of your energy. To help relieve your anxiety, don’t give every feeling you have all of your energy. Take the time to notice what you are feeling without investing all of your emotions into it. Sometimes that is enough to keep us from falling into a cycle of worry that can cause a total anxiety flare. 

Anxiety doesn’t have to run your life. Give yourself some time to master these techniques. As you employ them, you will begin to get a better sense of what will bring you relief at the moment. Keep trying until you find a technique that works best for you.