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How To Calm Down Your Anxiety

Practice Good Sleep Hygiene

How to Calm Down Instantly in 10 Seconds (When You’re Anxious)

Try to go to sleep and wake up at the same time every day weekends included.

Your routine before going to bed also matters. Consider giving yourself wind-down times. For example, 20 minutes with no devices. Instead, you could read a book or take a bath.

Avoiding potential triggers, like watching TV or scrolling the news on your phone, is key.

Creating a sleep routine will help you fall asleep faster and reduce the chances that youll lie awake, worrying about unfinished tasks or the next morning.

Tip : Challenge Anxious Thoughts

If you suffer from chronic anxiety and worry, chances are you look at the world in ways that make it seem more threatening than it really is. For example, you may overestimate the possibility that things will turn out badly, jump immediately to worst-case scenarios, or treat every anxious thought as if it were fact. You may also discredit your own ability to handle lifes problems, assuming youll fall apart at the first sign of trouble. These types of thoughts, known as cognitive distortions, include:

How To Calm Your Anxiety Fast:

When you need to stave off an anxiety attack or pull yourself out of spiraling thoughts, you need immediate interventions. Sometimes, our worries can intrude on our everyday tasks and can take us out of the present moment, de la Rosa explains. When that happens, these techniques can help break the cycle.

Categorize Your Thoughts

Another technique Goldman likes is listing objects in a category say, 80s bands, ice cream flavors or any topic that gets your brain whirring. The more you enjoy the category, the more it will help shift the anxiety and distract from the triggering situation, she says. Because you can do it anywhere, this technique works well for anxiety that strikes in public or when you cant physically remove yourself from a situation.

Get Rid of an Anxious Feeling By Replacing It

If youve ever found yourself hysterically laughing after an intense crying jag, you know the healing powers of a good chuckle. Switch on an absorbing podcast, crack open a spine-tingling thriller, or hit play on a gut-busting YouTube video to swap out anxious thoughts for more pleasant ones. When we genuinely laugh, we will feel less anxious, even if just for a moment, says Goldman. Sometimes, even a brief hit of levity can stop anxiety from carrying you away. The same principle applies when redirecting your emotional energy into something that really captures your attention, whether its comedy or true crime.

Walk It Out

Use Cold Water to Calm Yourself Now

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How Can I Overcome Anxiety At Bedtime

If anxiety or disrupted sleep occurs often in your day-to-day life, these simple strategies can help you relax your body and mind and ease yourself into sleep. Changing your pre-sleep habits takes time and patience, but adapting to these changes may help you fall asleep with less sleep anxiety over time.

How To Calm Anxiety: Stop Fooling Yourself

How To Calm Down During A Panic Attack

At times, pretending to be fine is healthy behavior. An emotional breakdown in front of your children isnt a healthy way to express your fears. But when youre with your spouse, partner, or friends, its appropriate to share your frightening thoughts.

Growing up with ADHD, many of us developed coping mechanisms that worked for years but dont do any good now. Namely, we often pretend were fine when were not. Everyone needs a trustworthy, supportive person to whom they can unload their darkest fears.

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Tip : Interrupt The Worry Cycle

If you worry excessively, it can seem like negative thoughts are running through your head on endless repeat. You may feel like youre spiraling out of control, going crazy, or about to burn out under the weight of all this anxiety. But there are steps you can take right now to interrupt all those anxious thoughts and give yourself a time out from relentless worrying.

Get up and get moving. Exercise is a natural and effective anti-anxiety treatment because it releases endorphins which relieve tension and stress, boost energy, and enhance your sense of well-being. Even more importantly, by really focusing on how your body feels as you move, you can interrupt the constant flow of worries running through your head. Pay attention to the sensation of your feet hitting the ground as you walk, run, or dance, for example, or the rhythm of your breathing, or the feeling of the sun or wind on your skin.

Take a yoga or tai chi class. By focusing your mind on your movements and breathing, practicing yoga or tai chi keeps your attention on the present, helping to clear your mind and lead to a relaxed state.

Practice progressive muscle relaxation. This can help you break the endless loop of worrying by focusing your mind on your body instead of your thoughts. By alternately tensing and then releasing different muscle groups in your body, you release muscle tension in your body. And as your body relaxes, your mind will follow.

Relaxation techniques can change the brain

Hanging Out With Friends

Relationships matter even for us introverts, says Stone. Research also tells us that isolating is one of the worst things for anxiety and depression.

So, consider making time for friends, family, and other social engagements.

Put yourself in social situations at least weekly as a part of your self-discipline to help you build community over time, says Stone.

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Put Relaxation And Self

A fully packed schedule would make a lot of people feel stressed. Make sure you take time out each day for at least one thing you enjoy doing whether its spending time on a hobby, watching a Netflix episode, or chatting with a friend. It can also help if you schedule the activity into your day, so that you dont feel guilty about not doing something else. Read our guide to relaxation for more ideas.

If youre feeling overwhelmed, dont be afraid to say no to things when you need to.

Do This Monkey Stretch To Release Tension

OCD Video Coaching ~ How to Calm Down Anxiety by Breathing

In this exercise, you bring your hands in front of you, then bring the arms down. Then you bring your arms to your side, and then down. Finally you bring your arms all the way past your head and then swoop down, with your head dangling between your knees, and you hang out there for a second. This exercise is extremely effective at releasing the tension we hold in different parts of our body.

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Dylan Dreyer And Sheinelle Jones Practice Mindfulness

When youre not panicking, you can learn how to help anxiety attacks be less frequent and less intense:

  • Practice rescue breathing so you can turn to it more easily when you have an attack.
  • Try guided meditation or yoga.
  • Work on progressive muscle relaxation, like making a tight fist and opening it slowly.

How To Stop Feeling Anxious:

You may have heard that the best medicine is prevention, and thats true for keeping anxiety from getting overwhelming, too. Getting enough sleep, fitting in some physical activity and ensuring you eat a balanced diet will all establish a solid baseline, day-to-day. But in addition to a healthy lifestyle, there are also specific anxiety-combatting techniques that can help keep your mind calm and focused. Starting your morning with intention can help, advises Catherine Athans, Ph.D., a certified trauma and marriage therapist in Los Altos, California. Instead of diving into the news or the latest drama on social media the moment your eyes open, take a few moments to quietly set an intention for the day ahead. Something like, Today I intend to take things as they come or Today I have a lot of work and I will do the best I can or perhaps, Today I will try and be patient with myself and others.

Break Out That Day Planner

Once youve set your intentions, block out your day on a calendar or planner, including time to exercise and relax. Having a list of tasks to cross off gives your brain something concrete to latch onto, and less to think about. Keeping your brain focused on a set of activities can quiet rising anxiety, as well. Racing around with thoughts going every which way sets the stage for feeling anxious about what you have to do, she explains. When you write things down, it helps you get a better view of what you’re doing so you don’t become overwhelmed.

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Reason #: Poor Sleep Cycle

According to Lawson, insomnia and anxiety share a strong relationship, meaning sleep problems or insomnia can cause anxiety and vice versa.

If youve always been anxious or struggled to fall asleep, you may have developed a pattern of poor or interrupted sleep. This makes your body most susceptible to stress and insomnia. Types of Anxiety Disorders

Research also shows that sleep disorders occur in almost all psychiatric and anxiety disorders. Some of these include:

  • Generalized anxiety disorder: Worry over everyday events, making it difficult to relax.
  • Social anxiety disorder: The anticipation of social situations can often prevent sleep at night.
  • Compulsive-obsessive disorder: Research suggests that intrusive thoughts and fears can keep people up when theyre trying to fall asleep.
  • Post-traumatic stress disorder: The constant re-experiencing of traumatic events can induce nightmares and rob people of sleep.

How To Calm Yourself Down When Crying

Ways To Calm Down From An Anxiety Attack

Many feelings can result in tears. There are happy tears, angry tears, tears of frustration, grief, or embarrassment. Even though its a universal experience, most people dont want to cry in front of others. Berating yourself doesnt make it any better. Here are some self-compassionate ways to manage tears.

  • Cry it out

Ever try not to cry? It doesn’t feel great. If you can, let yourself cry. It’s often over much more quickly than it would be if you tried to fight it. Sometimes, you just need to feel whatever the feeling is.

  • Wash your face

Yes, it helps cover up the fact that you’ve been crying. However, it feels really good to wash your face with some cool water when you cry.

  • Drink something warm

You know that swollen feeling in the throat of trying to choke back tears? Drinking something warm can help you relax. It also helps you to slow down. Nothing inspires mindful breathing more than blowing on a hot beverage.

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Ways To Help Lower Anxiety Naturally

  • Get a good night’s sleep.
  • Research shows that after a full night of sleep â 7-9 hours is ideal â weâre likely to feel less anxious and more confident. Physical activity during the day will help us sleep better, too. And remember: if winding down for the night inclues reading before bed, don’t make these mistakes.

  • Fill the plate with anti-anxiety foods.
  • Science is discovering more about the âgut-brain connection.â Researchers often refer to the belly as the second brain, since about 95% of serotonin receptors are found in the lining of the gut. Science shows that foods containing certain vitamins and minerals may help reduce anxiety, so when weâre thinking about natural ways to help anxiety, consider filling up on these:

    It might also be a good idea to limit caffeine and alcohol â both of which can aggravate symptoms of anxiety.

  • Take a vitamin B-complex or a probiotic supplement.
  • Research shows that B vitamins have many health and quality of life benefits, and supplementing with B vitamins is gaining scientific traction. This 2018 study found that people who ate food high in B vitamins showed significant improvements in their anxiety and stress scores than those who did not. Taking a high-quality B-complex supplement is generally very safe, since B vitamins are water-soluble, meaning the body excretes what it doesnât use. But always consult with your doctor before taking any supplements since they can interact with medications or have side effects.

    Name What Youre Feeling

    When youre experiencing an anxious episode, you may not realize whats going on until youre really in the thick of it.

    Recognizing anxiety for what it is may help you calm down quicker.

    Name that this is anxiety not reality and that it will pass, says Kim Hertz, a psychotherapist at New York Therapy Practice. When you are in a heightened state of anxiety, you want to disrupt that cycle, and for some people, thought-stopping techniques are effective and as simple as saying stop to the internalized messaging that heightens anxiety.

    In other words, consider recognizing that what youre feeling is anxiety and talking yourself through it.

    Embrace absolute truths, says Steven Sultanoff, clinical psychologist and professor at Pepperdine University. I will get through this one way or another.

    Naming your sensations and feelings may help you step away from them. This is anxiety, it is not you and it wont last forever.

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    Avoid Stressful Activities Before Bed

    Amber Weiss, licensed psychotherapist and founder of Transformative Mindset, says, Creating some form of a transition from daytime to sleeping is highly recommended. According to Weiss, you cant expect the mind to go to sleep on demand. Instead, you need to allow time for the brain to transition, just like we transition to go outside or when we get home.

    The goal is to reduce the nervous thoughts in your head so your mind is clear, calm, and positive before you head off to sleep. This can entail leaving the office, work, news, and social media exchanges for earlier in the day to create buffer time between work and sleep, setting yourself up for better rest.

    Avoid Drugs Alcohol And Stimulants

    How-To calm down, stop anxiety and stress

    Stimulants are chemicals that excite your nervous system, making it work faster and harder. Using stimulants can worsen your anxiety symptoms, so cutting these out can help you to manage your anxiety. Some of the most common stimulants are:

    • caffeine, which is found in coffee and tea
    • nicotine, which is found in tobacco products such as cigarettes, chews and vape pens
    • drugs such as cocaine.

    Its ideal to avoid alcohol and drugs in general when youre experiencing anxiety. If youre using substances to feel better or to relax, you might become dependent on them and they could make you feel worse in the long run.

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    Talk To Someone You Trust About How You’re Feeling

    Just talking to someone about how youre feeling can take a weight off your shoulders. Make sure you trust the person, work out what you want to say to them, and then just go for it. If youre finding it tricky, weve got four more steps for talking to someone you trust here.

    If you want to talk to someone anonymously, check out the ReachOut Forums or a hotline here.

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