Anxiety is fear of the future. What do we know about the future? Well… nothing.

We can predict and guess until the cows come home, but until we actually experience the situation that has been playing out in our head, we have no idea what is going to happen.

That butterfly feeling in the pit of your stomach causes an endless loop of scenarios that you percieve to be reality. Elevating your heart rate without doing anything. It goes to show just how powerful your mind can be!

This is a shared emotion, everyone of us has experienced the emotion of anxiety. It can arrise for many different reasons, social, school, work or relationships.The way in which people handle this emotion is what sets people apart.

To begin, lets have a look at what not to do.

What to Avoid
A want to control situations — Anxiety arrises due to the unknown of an event. Being unprepared we think of many scenraios that may play out.
This in turn will increase anxiety by obsessing over something that you have no control over. Let go!

Anxious habbits — This may include, over eating, drinking, smoking, even drinking a lot of caffiene. These habbits will increase your heart rate. Making it much harder to manage your emotions, leaving you dependent on pleasures outside of you.

Situations that cause anxiety — Removing yourself from the cause of your anxiety will give you a bresh of fresh air. Sometimes it is not possible due to work or school. Instead, try to limit the people and places that arrise the feelings.

Social media — Although it can be enjoyable in short doses, it has been shown how damaging social media can be for your mental health.
If going cold turkey isn’t an option, try limiting the time spent on the various sites.

Negative self beliefs — A thought loop may be the root cause of your anxiety. Having a negative inner dialouge is rather damaging. Try affirming that you are okay and calm. This will begin to reprogram your subconscious mind to be more positive!

Okay, so what about ways in which we can manage our anxious minds?

1. Mindfullness and Meditation

look for the internal problem rather than the external.

We as humans so often look for outer gratification and validation. Asking help from others without doing the work ourselves. Nobody can change the way you think apart from yourself.

Afterall the mind is not a physical object that can be moulded and shaped.
It is purely mental, in YOUR head, so you are in control of how you feel.

Practise sitting by yourself, maybe listening to a guided meditation and be comfortable in the present moment.

In the ever present now thoughts will arrise about things from the future or mistakes of the past. This is normal, suprisingly. Do not attacth yourself to these thoughts. Notice them and let them drift away as if they were clouds in the sky.

You will surely begin to witness many improvements in yourself after a bit of practise along with a daily commitment.

2. Get Active

When our minds are still and not focussed on something, istypically when it begins to play tricks on us.

“Remember that time before when you failed?” Your mind will begin to cause anxiety over simply nothing.

Get up or get active! By focussing yourself on activities other than thinking will give your mind a rest it needs.

Focussing on the physical body allows your subconscious to detox. Whether thats through physical exercise such as going to the gym, cycling or boxing.
Or mental tasks, maybe you enjoy puzzles, reading books or listening to music.

Don’t think of it as a distraction, instead a way of training the “monkey mind” to sit still for a while!

3. Write your Thoughts in a Journal

Is it hard for you to talk to others about how you feel? Sometimes its easier to write your thoughts down.

I get it, you may not feel comfortable talking about your thoughts and feelings with others. Thats okay, guess who will listen to you all day… YOU!

Journaling is a great way to express your own thoughts and feelings without the fear of judgement from others.

Don’t worry too much about grammar or spelling, write freely about whatever comes to mind. Not only the negatives, try to find some positive thoughts too!

After a while you can begin to look through your journal and see how far you have progressed.

4. Improve yourself!

In a spiral of anxious thoughts, it is so easy to forget about taking care of yourself.

We begin to feel lazy, eat unhealthily and some essentially give up caring about themselves all together. It goes without saying that this is not the best solution.

Start with little things, cooking healthy dishes, exercising, relaxing or learning new skills.

Building your self esteem and confidence will boost your inner belief that you can achieve anything you put your mind to. This will fill your mind with positive thoughts by smashing each day and becoming a better version of yourself!

Conclusion
Over the last few decades anxiety has increased dramatically. People have begun to fixate their worlds on outer realities rather than focusing on themselves. Wanting to prove to others just how great they are and not validating their own lives.

Turning the attention inwards on ourselves and learning to be present with our own thoughts and emotions will decrease an anxious mind.

You don’t have to just sit still either, get active and focus your attention on other activites, giving rest to your thought riddled mind. Talking to people about our feelings can be a little challenging at times, journaling to yourself can take a huge weight off your shoulders. Having a mentality of not giving up and consistently improving will boost your confidence and self belief!