Coping Strategies for Anxiety

As promised in my earlier blog for February here are some strategies for coping with anxiety. Everyone faces challenges in life and some cope better than others. Most of us (probably all) have anxious thoughts at some time and it is vital to have coping strategies to hand to help face and deal with the challenges.

Anxious thoughts arise when you give too much attention to negative or even catastrophic outcomes. What helps is if you make coping strategies your good habit so they are available to cope with difficult, challenging situations.

You can ask yourself some questions:

• Have you managed to cope in challenging situations?
• Do you have the skills, knowledge and strategies to cope with challenging situations?
• How can you prepare in advance to ensure positive outcomes from challenging situations?
• Do you over-emphasise the ‘bad’ or ‘negative’ outcomes in your mind?

Here are some techniques:

• One thing you can start doing is to look at challenging situations as objectively as you can and imagine realistic outcomes, and of course, prepare – be ready! Ask yourself, is the anticipated negative or bad outcome unacceptable or devastating? The answer is more often than not, ‘no’.
• Practice mindfulness techniques such as my ABC, they are psychologically proven to be effective in helping let go of anxious thoughts. A is for affirmation and B for effective breathing which relaxes and energises, C is for using your creative imagination as this builds resilience, and with resilience you can face life’s challenges
• Don’t fight the fear, again using my ABC enables you to face your fears

My ABC are mindfulness techniques (MindBites) and these techniques help you to slow your mind down when faced with difficulties, challenges and help to reduce anxiety. Instead of increasing your fears of the future, you start thinking in the present. You focus on tolerating and accepting a challenging situation.

When you make my ABC your good habit you notice signs when you are having negative thoughts and are able to stop them before you become overwhelmed. You see things more positively.

To make my ABC your good habit, you must practice them regularly, and psychological research shows that to create a habit you must practice it daily for at least 28 days – if you miss a day, the 28-day period starts again! That’s the hard part! The ABC themselves are easy to use.

An immediate coping strategy when anxious thoughts arise – take a deep breath (my ‘B’). Acknowledge your feelings and let them go. I developed MindBites videos, one of which is called ‘Letting Go’ to help you do this. My MindBites videos are a maximum of 3 minutes long.

Be kind to yourself and practice self-compassion. I know this can be difficult particularly as we have all experienced past conditioning. You can find out more about this and how to move forward by reading my self-help books, especially one titled ‘Self-Awareness’.

If you listen to my regular live videos shared on social media, under Pat’s Pup Park Pootles you will already know my trade-mark tip is to SMILE and LAUGH, they cost you nothing. I have had my share of life’s challenges and trauma and if I can do it, so can you. Read more about me on my website.

Please also listen to my podcast where I cover wellbeing topics. The next one is about exploring your emotions.

Virtual hugs

Patricia x