Turn Your Anxiety Into A Mental Health Weapon

You probably heard a lot of experts that say fear or anxiety is not real and it is only a thing that goes into your mind. That’s not true. It is real, and it can have a lot of manifestation in your life. According to Dr. Sahib Khalsa, MD, Ph.D., “stress is an important factor in the emergence and maintenance of anxiety syndromes. Patients who need to return to the workforce can experience increased stress that in turn may cause re-emergence of the symptoms, again resulting in decreased productivity and even loss of employment.” Therefore, anxiety affects your work, social connection, relationships, and daily duties. When you are afraid, it robs you all the experiences that you want to have in your life. It limits your capacity to do the things you are supposed to do and lets you become incapable of handling even personal issues. There is no room for expressing ideas when you are full of anxiety. Yes, managing the mental condition is tough, but it doesn’t have to be like that. You can always find ways to do something about it. In this article, I’m going to help you fight fear and anxiety.

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Anxiety On The Move

Anxiety is a mental condition that can control some of the physical states of your body. It is somehow the same as having excitement. It becomes normal to feel your heart race, you tend to sweat, there’s tightening in your chest, and sometimes you feel a pit in your stomach. That’s because it is how the body reacts to the psychological condition. It goes into a hyper-aware state because it feels different every time there’s an excitement. Its only difference with anxiety is the effects it gives to the brain. Therefore, the critical thing about understanding anxiety is to know how it can work positively.

You may hear a friend or someone you know may tell you to feel the fear and do what you got to do anyway. Maybe they all encourage you to calm down when you have a panic attack. You might also read some article that tells you to focus on your positive thoughts. With all that good advice, you know deep down inside that it will not work. And when you try to ignore your fear and anxiety, you know it will only get worse. So what do you have to do?

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The Transition

Your brain is so compelling that it can affect all the functions of your body. With that, you need to anchor yourself and reframe what you’re mind is doing and change how your brain reacts to things. Alicia Clark, Psy.D., even advised to “get panic under control, by changing your mindset. Instead of fighting panic, learn to dive into it. Like a large wave approaching, bracing yourself isn’t as effective as diving through it.” For example, when you are feeling afraid of something, tell yourself that you are excited. That instead of having panic attacks and extreme fear, you need to condition the brain to acknowledge the physiological signs as the opposite of the mental condition. Yes, the process of transitioning from negative to positive is not that simple. But when you continuously repeat the thought, it sends a message to the brain that eventually turns it into a fixed idea.

Let’s say you want to do something different in your life. You know thinking about doing it makes you feel nervous. Therefore, before you do it, you need to come up with an anchor thought that could help you focus. You need to come up with the idea that will not engage in any escalation to a situation that supports anxiety and panic attacks. Better yet avoid screwing things up with your “what ifs,” Anchor your thoughts in a different direction so you can maintain the control over the stuff in your head and respond to its consequences positively. It is essential to understand that when you are creating an anchor-thought, you need to pick up something that supports your mental, emotional, and behavioral state.

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The Art Of Conditioning The Mind

The success of mental conditioning is fantastic. The process does not only remove you away from fear and anxiety, but it also opens a positive disposition. You can have instant access to happiness and satisfaction whenever you want.  In Dr. Bethany Teachman’s, Ph.D., study, she and her colleagues found that “the practice of making mostly positive interpretations is helpful because it shifts the relatively rigid, negative interpretative style that characterizes anxiety disorders, helping the person to expand their repertoire of interpretive options and increasing their cognitive flexibility.” The art of picturing something good in your head provides significant benefits in all areas of your development such as emotional, mental, behavioral, and even spiritual. So whenever you feel like you are about to struggle with negative thoughts, always condition your mind to look for the good in it. Take your time to reduce fear and anxiety in your system and practice the right mind conditioning process.