Anxiety

“Anxiety is supposed to help us, so what's going wrong?.” - Dave Hyldig

What is anxiety?

Anxiety is a protective mechanism or behaviour that is meant to keep us safe from a known or expected harm

While some amount of anxiety is normal and positive as it can cause us to prepare for the future or be aware of a possible threat, too much of it can be dangerous to your health and hold you back in life.

Scientists believe that a common type of anxiety, social anxiety was an adaptive response that helped to keep us in the group for safety. Worry about being cast out of a group could mean danger from predators etc.

In a way, anxiety is the vivid imagination that shows how powerful our minds are.

This imagination can quickly become strong feelings that can feed the thoughts and keep us stuck in a state of being that is not helpful. 

If you have a job interview or an exam, or a presentation to make, the anxiety can be helpful as it can give us focus towards the goal of being successful.

Quite often unfortunately anxiety can get carried away and hold us back instead.

So what can we do about anxiety?

By understanding and implementing strategies we can safely move past the worry and anxiety by directing our body, our beliefs and our breathing. 

1. Breathing exercises

The way we breathe effects our anxiety levels. Whether it's stress anxiety or pain, breathing is an easy way to change your state in less than a minute!

My favorite way to get this benefit is with 3 to 5 "sniff sniff ahh breaths".

Two quick full breaths in through the nose and a long out breath.

This activates the parasympathetic nervous system and puts our body in the rest and digest mode.

This has been popularized by Andrew Huberman - Neuroscientist at Stanford University.

Huberman also mentions Non Sleep Deep Rest as a major benefit which I will get to later with the subject of Hypnosis for reducing stress.

Walking yourself through a progressive relaxation along with the breathing shifts can be powerful way to start feeling better.

2. Change what you are thinking about

Perseverating on difficult decisions or imagining negative outcomes will keep anxiety going. If you are trying to tackle something difficult it can be a good idea to take breaks as we can think better when we aren't so amped up!

The conscious mind can only hold 7-10 things at a time so if you direct your attention to other things in a substantial way you can change how you are feeling. Thin is why grounding exercises work.

It's best if you use things from different senses. Things you see, hear and feel for example.

Positive visualizations can also be great, with a little practice.

3. Move your body

Moving your body with a bit of physical exercise or even just a substantial posture change can help too.

Go for a walk and get some fresh air and notice the different sensory information as you go.

Another of my favourites is a posture change.

Throw your hands above your head and pump them up and down like you just won a race. This fools your body into thinking you must have something to celebrate and it changes how you feel.

4. Hypnosis makes all this easier

Hypnosis for therapeutic change is called Hypnotherapy.

Because anxiety is an unconscious behaviour, hypnosis can be a very powerful tool to address it.

I can help you can notice whenever anxiety is coming on, and then you can find yourself unconsciously rolling out these beneficial behaviours and feel better and get things done without feeling so stressed!

I can help you with this through Hypnosis and I can teach you self-hypnosis so you can take these amazing skills with you for the rest of your life and be able to change your state of mind whenever you need it.

If you want some more help with this feel free to book a freee consult at one of the clinics I work with.

You can book a FREE consult at  www.hypthink.com

Check out the free hypnosis recording to Relax & Recharge! in just 12 min!