What is Anxiety & How can we Cope With it?

Anxiety impacts us all in so many ways.

Just look at the APA’s definition: feelings of tension, worried thoughts, and physical changes like increased blood pressure.

Anxiety affects our ability to complete tasks, accomplish goals and challenge ourselves by leaning into discomfort.

Our anxiety can be so loud and overpowering to the point that we bow out of taking necessary risks, essentially sabotaging ourselves from reaching our goals.

Anxiety or not- we tend to be our biggest critics in life. So imagine when anxiety is added to that mix.

It ends up a mess of worry, fears of rejection, feelings of inadequacy, and straight up avoidance.

Imagine having multiple loud voices in your head screaming at you saying, “you’re going to look like an idiot!” or “why would anyone care about what you think?” That’s anxiety.

So let’s look at some tools to help us silence the voice of anxiety.

Here is a list of other coping tool that could be helpful:

• Journaling

• Meditation or guided imagery

• Listen to soothing music

• Practicing words of affirmation

• Unwinding with games or activities

• Five-sense grounding activities (5 things you see, 4 things you hear, 3 things you feel, 2 things you smell, 1 thing you taste)

Try out as many coping mechanisms as you can and be patient with the process.

The sooner you stop judging yourself so harshly, the sooner anxiety grip will lighten.