How to stop anxiety
You feel the heart rate is rising, breathing is getting faster and faster. Now you are short on breath and the feeling of panic runs through your entire body. You want to flee from the situation.
What should you do?
"Flee!" Tells us our natural instinct. Sometimes it´s just the right decision to do if we are in a situation that can cause direct harm to our physical being. But what if it´s just in our head? What if the fear of public speaking or any other interaction with other members of society is just a fear of judgment by others, no being good enough?
In this case, there is no real danger but only our negative expectation of the upcoming event that cause anxiety.
And if you are right in the middle of such situation, there´s one thing you can do - breath! Just breath. If possible, go to a room where you can be on your own.
Close your eyes, if it helps you to relax, and take a long slow breath in on the count of 3, hold it for 1 count and slowly breath out while counting to five.
Repeat this several times until you feel the relief.
Feeling relief is the key!
It means that your anxiety has disappeared just for a short while. Once you have achieved the feeling of relief, don´t rush to reintroduce thoughts that brought you anxiety. Think about something neutral, like you are here in this place on your own and you are feeling better.
When you are feeling better, start by prepaying your upcoming experience by deliberately changing your course of thought, by guiding them into more desirable direction.
For example: "This is my first encounter with these people and they have no reason to think negatively about me." "I will be alright. I am a good person and I always do my best. People usually find me likable." "This situation is not as a big deal as I make it be." "Even if I made a mistake, it´s not a big deal. There´s not a single person who never made a mistake. " " I am doing just fine."
Practice this before a situation that might cause anxiety and you will be just fine. And if a stressful situation has occured at some point during the day, take a moment to do the breathing exercise when you have a moment.
