Did you know that anxiety and stress are stealing the peaceful night-time sleep of nearly 40 million Americans every year? Anger could also be destroying your confidence, twisting your stomach into knots, and affecting your overall mental health and wellness.
We all know the unpleasant reactions of stress and fear. Our hearts start racing, our hands get sweaty, and our breathing becomes short and tired. We undergo uncomfortable ideas about the potential danger that we believe would be too hard to cope with. The human brain reacts to both real and unreal threats in the same way. We refer to the “fight or flight” response, which creates an adrenaline surge to help you fight or flee. It leads to sympathetic arousal, narrowing of concentration, and a focus on escaping the danger. We seem to be stuck in that condition, incapable of accomplishing our daily tasks or achieving our longer-term objectives.
The first step in resolving these depressive emotions as increased fear, discomfort, despair, stomach pain, or breathing difficulties, is to understand that you are undergoing a prevalent mental condition most frequently known as anxiety.
Below are six practical approaches that can help you alleviate your everyday anxiety and stress:
Embrace Fear
Anxiety makes us believe like a threat is unavoidable. However, most of the time, what we think about is never going to happen. By measuring our concerns and how few came true, we can see how much we exaggerate the possibility of negative experiences.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a strategy that provides people to accept the inevitable outcome of negative feelings and not try to suppress or control them. By turning our attention away from fear and back to life’s work and valued goals, we can live a good life despite anxiety.
Decatastrophizing
In cognitive-behavioral therapy, decatastrophization is a behavior management strategy used to diagnose cognitive distortions, widely seen in psychological disorders such as anxiety and anger.
Even if a terrible event takes place in your life, you may still be ready to deal with it by using coping skills and problem-solving capacities, or by seeking help for professional therapists.
Learn How to Relax and Breathe Deeply
Imagine going out in nature just to be approached by a grizzly bear, or your boss is asking for this report. When we face an anxiety-inducing problem, our body’s sympathetic nervous system automatically creates physiological changes. This natural survival mechanism is designed to help us escape a life-threatening accident.
Self-soothing methods that decrease the stress reaction:
Positive self-talk: We intuitively know how to help others fight stress, often better than we’ve ever helped ourselves. It is imperative to exercise comforting and rational self-talk. When anxious, rehearse phrases such as “This feeling is going to pass,” and “I’m going to get through this”.
Muscle Relaxation: Stress makes our muscles to stretch and become anxious. It would be best if you learned how to rest to improve your relaxed state and emotional comfort.
Control Your Diet
What we drink and eat affects our mental state. Caffeine and alcohol are most associated with provoking anxiety and anger. Even when taken in small quantities, studies have shown that the side effects of caffeine can induce depression, trigger extreme stress, and enhance feelings of fear and irritability. Caffeine also tends to cause physical symptoms such as shaking and trembling. Abruptly reducing caffeine from the diet, however, can result in withdrawal side effects such as nausea, fatigue, and difficulty sleeping.
Get Moving
Most people know that exercise is good for our overall health. Research has recommended that daily exercise can be much more healthy and helpful than drugs. Sustaining a regular practice routine has been shown to lessen stress, enhance mood, boost self-esteem, and improve strength. During training, the body produces chemical substances endorphins that connect with brain receptors to cause euphoric emotions and alleviate physical discomfort.
Get More Sleep
Almost everyone feels a little moody after a lousy night’s sleep. Disrupted sleep is common in many mental conditions. Research from the University of Pennsylvania revealed that skipping a few hours of sleep enhances feelings of stress, anger, depression, and fatigue.
What Are the Risks of Repressed Anger?
Contained and unspoken anger may be a source of anxiety and depression. Anger that is not adequately articulated can interrupt human connections, impact behavior and action patterns, and cause several physical problems.
Chronic long-term rage has been related to health issues such as high blood pressure, heart attacks, fatigue, skin conditions, and digestive concerns. Moreover, ill-managed anger may be linked to problems as drug and alcohol abuse, violence, physical and emotional abuse, and other aggressive reactions.
Closing Thoughts
For many people, self-help skills with anxiety approaches can be beneficial. However, if your stress, fears, or anxiety symptoms have become so severe that they are producing intense distress or disturbing your daily routine, it is necessary to seek medical support.