Stress and anxiety can overwhelm almost anyone when given the opportunity. Whether you are worried about that meeting, that exam, those bills, or that discussion – how do you handle that? Do you have methods to counter these “attacks?” Does your mind hold all the power?
Dr. Andrew Weil, M.D. 
gives an excellent description of our behavior during stressful times, “We experience potential stressors throughout our lives. Situations that can create stress are unavoidable. What we can control is how we react to them. Psychological stress can best be defined as emotional strain or tension in response to a particular event, behavior, place, or person. While it isn’t always easy to find effective ways to manage the daily stressors we face, it is important to try to find healthy ways to deal with stress. When we cannot, we often feel its damaging impact through anger, depression, and a multitude of health problems.”
While personal stressors can have a significant impact on your anxiety, problems on a grander scale (i.e., hurricanes, fires, politics, etc.) can trigger the same stressful feelings. So, how can you combat these negative emotions and focus your energy on the positive?
- Identify the problem. What is the source of your anxiety? What made you feel this way? Is this something that’s under your control? At times, your stress over something is beyond your control. Especially then, it’s important to put it into perspective.
- Put down your device. Whether you’re reading the news, your Twitter or Facebook feed, or watching a video on YouTube, this could be the cause of your stress. Social media can magnify negativity because people love to complain. Once you put down your device, you can more positively assess the news.
- Visualize your anxiety. Try to silence your mind and focus on what’s worrying you. How would you rate your anxiety on a scale? Can you visualize your fears and imagine the anxiety leaving your body?
- Speak your fears out loud. If visualizing isn’t for you, then perhaps you need to be verbal. By saying what you’re feeling out loud, you can identify exactly what you’re thinking, and it may sound silly once you hear it yourself. This is a great technique to erase the voices inside your head and replace them with positive thoughts.
- Don’t dwell or overthink. Once you understand you might be overthinking the situation, take a step back and regain control. The “what if?” game is an indicator that you’re starting to create scenarios that aren’t reality. You’ll feel at ease once you’ve taken control of your thoughts and redirected your worries.
- Take a deep breath while you focus on the feeling of air filling your lungs and leaving the body. The WSJ agrees, “Research shows that a technique called ‘breath-focused attention’ lowers activity in the amygdala, the brain’s fear and anxiety center. People who practice it regularly have fewer negative emotional experiences overall.”