Stop Feeling Anxious Today! 10 Tips For Success!

Anxiety disorders can affect almost anyone. When you become filled with anxiety it is a hard thing to deal with. Using this advice, you can see options that may help you with your anxiety.

Many people who have an anxiety attack think that they are having a heart attack, as the two feel similar. Anxiety attacks go away, while heart attacks do not. If you wait to see if the symptoms improve, you may suffer irreversible damage. If you really are having heart attack symptoms, you need to contact emergency services quickly.

TIP! You need to follow your doctor’s advice and communicate freely with them as you are being treated. It’s always important to let your doctor know whether the treatment you are receiving is working or not.

Monitor your breathing when you get stressed. You will notice that you are not breathing deeply and probably taking erratic breaths. When anxious it is often difficult to exercise regular breathing. However, if you are mindful of it, you can regulate your breathing so that you can calm yourself and regain control. Try refocusing your breathing when you’re having an attack.

Set aside a certain time to think about your worries. Rigidly tell yourself as the day goes by that you could not dwell on these things before the allotted time. Give yourself an hour to address your problems. When your time is over, do not let yourself focus on worries. This can really help you to take control over your anxiety.

A lot of people realize exercise is helpful in lowing anxiety levels, but most people aren’t aware of the best type of exercise for anxiety relief. If you don’t know where you should begin, try doing simple exercises like walking, running, or jogging with minimal equipment.

TIP! A good way to reduce your anxiety levels is to find out what causes your anxiety levels to spike. For instance, do you seem more stressed when you’re at work? If that is the case, discuss the issue with your supervisor.

Not taking time to relax is common in people who suffer increased stress and anxiety. Spend time each day relaxing; drink some tea, work in your garden, or watch an interesting movie. Just relaxing for a few minutes each day will reduce your anxiety over the long run.

Panic Attack

This may sound a little silly, but try doing funny things when you’re having a panic attack like dancing around. This is a great way to distract yourself from your thoughts. Thought distraction is the best way to overcome a panic attack. Do what you can in your surroundings.

TIP! Stay as far away from nerve-racking and depressing people as possible, as they will only cause your anxiety to worsen. Try putting yourself around people with a good attitude to help you have a positive attitude about your life and issues.

Make sure you get plenty of sleep every night. Insufficient sleep can boost anxious feelings and thoughts in ways that would not happen if you rested enough. As the anxiety worsens, it causes actual physical symptoms, too. You should try as hard as possible to get seven to nine hours of sleep every night.
One of the best ways to relieve anxiety is to find its root cause and to attack it head on. This may take time, but once you identify the root causes, eliminating the anxiety becomes much faster and easier.

It has been said that laughter is great medicine. This is not only a saying, it is a great method for healing the anxious mind. Feeling pressured can be reduced by laughing and releasing negative feelings.

TIP! Give yourself daily goals, and strive to achieve it. Doing this will give your day purpose and keep you focused, both of which will help to prevent the negativity that triggers anxiety levels.

Make sure you get the proper hydration each and every day. You want to stay hydrated as well as be as nutritious as you possibly can. If you do not meet your body’s nutritional needs in this way, you will be prone to anxiety attacks. Make sure you’re eating full meals, and drinking plenty of water.
If you do not have many friends or relationships, try to develop some new relationships. Numerous places exist where you can easily meet new individuals who may become valued friends or possible romantic interests. Finding friends online is also a popular way that you can reduce your feelings of anxiety.

Hopefully this article has inspired you to take a proactive approach in dealing with your anxiety. Don’t just assume this is your fate. And most of all, don’t go it alone! There is a lot of help you can receive, so that you live a life that is less anxious and much happier.

How You Can Stop Feeling Anxious: 10 Tips

Anxiety can easily take control of your life. It can keep you from living life to its fullest. It can also keep you from doing things you once loved. If you’re tired of anxiety dictating how you live your day, continue reading for a few ways to keep it at bay.

Drink a good amount of water throughout the day. You should also ensure you are giving your body enough nourishment with the proper vitamins and minerals as well. Bodies that do not have the proper nutrients are more prone to anxious feelings. So fuel yourself with full meals and make sure you drink plenty of water.

TIP! Try meditation. Meditation has been found to be a great anxiety reliever.

Practice deep breathing consciously so that anxiety does not get too heavy physically. Anxiety may lead to hyperventilating when taking shallow breaths, instead what you should do is take breaths from your diaphragm. Anxiety can be lowered by taking deep breaths, making the stomach go in and out.

People with anxiety should not gamble at all. It can have a very negative impact on anyone with anxiety, as it leads to a great deal of stress no matter what the circumstances. Losing can make things worse for you financially, causing even more anxiety.

Stick to your physician’s treatment plan, while giving adequate feedback as you go. While your physician can offer you good advice and helpful medications, it is your responsibility to track your progress and report any problems or issues. Since your doctor only sees you occasionally, this communication is the key to successful treatment.

TIP! Sometimes, a little self discipline is all that you need to take charge of your emotional state. You’ll have far more control over all anxiety attacks once you have garnered some control and influence over your emotions.

Look into using amino acids to help alleviate your anxiety. If your body is deprived of essential nutrients, it may be hard for it to produce the serotonin that you need. A lot of good books, including one called The Mood Cure, talk about treatment plans where you can use nutritional supplements to cut or erase your anxiety.

A lot of anxiety is caused by external stimuli, a lot of people are genetically predisposed to anxiety. If anxiety attacks run in your family, then you might want to discuss your drug treatment options with a doctor.

If you want to keep your anxiety at bay, don’t let yourself be too idle. If your mind is not occupied because you have nothing to do, it is easy to focus on anxious feelings. Small things like doing housework or washing your car can help greatly.

TIP! Play the “Glad Game.” Pollyanna, a fictional character, always looked at the potential good in every situation no matter how bad.

One of the best ways to take control of anxiety is by learning what is causing it. Do you find that most of your stress is work related? If so, maybe there are steps you can take to lower your stress level, such as asking your supervisor if there is an opportunity for you to change to a different team or project. When you know the cause of your anxiety, you know what you can do to get rid of it.

Talk to someone about what you’re going through no matter who it is. Just bottling your feelings up inside will worsen your anxiety. Letting your feelings out can make you feel much better and reduce your anxiety.

If you suffer from anxiety it may help to limit the amount of exposure to the news. If negative stories increase your anxiety, don’t watch! The news emphasizes these things to get the attention of viewers. It is normal to have death and destruction on the daily news as opposed to positive stories that uplift the soul.

TIP! Seek out a support group in your area or online. People with anxiety can be misunderstood often.

Now that you’ve reached the end of this article, you can keep anxiety at bay. Use what you have just went over to get yourself back in control of your life. Once you practice these ideas regularly, you’ll notice less feelings of anxiety.

 

Do Not Be Anxious About Your Life

Do Not Be Anxious About Your Life

²⁴"No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

²⁵"Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor about your body, what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? ²⁶Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? ²⁷And which of you by being anxious can add one cubit to his span of life? ²⁸And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; ²⁹yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. ³⁰But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O men of little faith? ³¹Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' ³²For the Gentiles seek all these things; and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. ³³But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well.

³⁴"Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day's own trouble be sufficient for the day."

There are some kings who find it very effective to keep their subjects in constant anxiety. If the people are anxious about their life, and worry about where their next meal is coming from, then perhaps they will be more willing to do the king's bidding in order to get the food they need from the king's storehouse. Anxiety keeps them in their place. Fear makes the monarchy firm.

God Kingship and the Anxiety of His People

But one of the greatest things about Jesus is that he does not want his people to be anxious. The main point of today's text is that God does not secure his kingship by cultivating anxiety. On the contrary, the aim of God's kingship is to free us from anxiety. God doesn't need to keep us anxious in order to establish his power and superiority. Instead he exalts his power and superiority by working to take away our anxiety.
If you are born again; if you have turned away from sin and are following Jesus as Lord in the obedience of faith, his will for you this morning is that you not be anxious about anything, but that you enjoy deep serenity and peace and security. Jesus spoke these words in Matthew 6:24–34 precisely for you—to help you overcome whatever is making you anxious this morning.

Each Person's Struggle

I suppose I chose this text today for myself as much as for anybody. I feel anxious every time I come back from vacation. It feels like it used to when I went back to school after a long summer. I wasn't sure I would still be able to write. Or maybe this new teacher would require a lot of oral book reviews in front of the class.
My Struggle
But my struggle with anxiety is not just at the end of vacations. I wake up anxious virtually every morning. It's probably some weird quirk in my personality, or maybe some remnant of imbalanced parental upbringing, or more likely because there is sin in my mind and heart every day. Whatever the reason, it is a very real experience that I hate and have to deal with every day. So this sermon is for me. I will probably check this tape out of the library in a few weeks and listen to it early some morning when I am bouncing on my jogger before breakfast.
Young People's Struggles
But I know it's not just my problem. I got a letter from a young woman in another state last week, who had just broken off a relationship with a man because he simply did not take any spiritual leadership in their relationship. She closed her letter like this, "I want so to live a life that honors God, and it was easy to go off for awhile in a dream, thinking of being a wife and mother. But without a man who truly relies on God it is nothing, only heartache. Sometimes I lose hope that there are men who really do live like that—but I know there are. So I will continue to trust in God's best for me." There are a lot of young people who are anxious about whether they will ever get married.
Missionaries' Struggles
I got another letter last week from David Jaeger, one of our missionaries who serves in Liberia. David was very honest about some of the struggles of living in the village with the Gola people. He said, "As I look to the future of our work here in Liberia I feel very anxious. I wonder if the Muslims will listen to our explanations with an open heart. Will they believe? I worry about the handful of believers here. Will they change some of their ways and walk in obedience? Language study is a continual source of anxiety, as is preparation for Bible studies and sermons . . . etc." Missionaries get anxious, young people get anxious, pastors get anxious, everybody gets anxious.
We need a word from the Lord Jesus this morning to remind us that his kingship is not built on the anxiety of his people. He has made himself king over us for the very opposite purpose, namely, to take away our anxiety. In my own life the sheer statement from the Lord that he does not want me to be anxious has a great tendency to give me peace. But when you add to it the reasons he gives why we don't need to be anxious, his word becomes tremendously powerful. So let's spend the rest of our time looking at some of these reasons in Matthew 6:24–34.

The Main Point—Negatively and Positively

Everybody can see plainly that the main point of this text is that disciples of Jesus should not be anxious. Verse 25: "Do not be anxious about your life." Verse 31: "Do not be anxious, saying , 'What shall we eat?'" Verse 34: "Do not be anxious about tomorrow." So one thing should ring in your ears when you leave this morning, namely, "Jesus does not want me to be anxious."
But that is just the negative way of stating the main point of this passage. There is a positive way found in verse 33; namely, instead of being anxious, "Seek first God's kingdom." In other words when you think about your life or your food or your clothes or your spouse or your job or your mission, don't fret about them. Instead make God the king in that affair and in that moment, and hand over the situation to his kingly power and do his righteous will with the confidence that he will work for you and meet all your needs. To seek the kingship of God first in every affair and every moment of life is a thrilling way to live. It's full of freedom and peace and joy and adventure—and hardship; and it's worth it all. If you believe in the kingship of your heavenly Father, you do not need to be anxious about anything. Let's look at some of the reasons why.

Eight Reasons Not to Be Anxious

I see at least eight reasons Jesus gives why his disciples should not be anxious. Time is short, but I will try to mention them all. Who knows which one might be perfectly crafted to meet your special need?
1. Life Is More Than Food and Clothing
The first is given in verse 25. "Do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor about your body, what you shall put on." Why? "Because life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing." What does this mean?
Why do we tend to get anxious about food and clothing? Because there are three things that we would lose if we did not have food and clothing. First, we would lose some pleasures. Food tastes good. It is pleasurable to eat. Second, we would lose some human praise and admiring glances if we didn't have nice clothes. Third, we would lose long life if we had no food at all or weren't protected from the cold with warm clothes. So we get anxious about food and clothing because we don't want to lose physical pleasures or human praise or length of life.
And to this Jesus responds: If you are gripped by anxiety over these things, you have lost sight of the greatness of life. Life was not given primarily for physical pleasures, but for something greater—the enjoyment of God. Life was not given primarily for the approval of man, but for something greater—the approval of God. Life was not even given primarily for extension on this earth, but for something greater—eternity with God in the age to come.
We ought not to be anxious about food and clothing because food and clothing can not provide the great things of life—the enjoyment of God, the pursuit of his gracious favor, the hope of eternity in his presence. We get anxious about food and clothing to the same degree that we lose sight of the great purposes of a God-centered life.
2. The Birds of the Air Work, and Count on God
The second reason Jesus gives for not being anxious is in verse 26: "Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?" What we see when we look at the birds is not a lesson in laziness. They dig their worms and snatch their bugs and pad their nests with strings and leaves. But Jesus says it is God that feeds them. What we see when we look at the birds is a creature who does not act as though God is only a merciful provider for today but won't be tomorrow. Birds don't anxiously horde things for the day of God's demise. They go about their work as though when the sun comes up tomorrow, God will still be God.
How much more, then, should we reckon with the reality and mercy of God tomorrow, since we are not brute birds, but children of our heavenly Father. The biggest difference between a disciple of Jesus and a bird is that we have the capacity of honoring God by our faith. And God values the exercise of our faith more than he values birds. So we ought not to be anxious, because the birds have taught us that God can be counted on to work for us tomorrow just as much as today.
3. Anxiety Doesn't Get You Anywhere
The third reason not to be anxious is in verse 27: "And which of you by being anxious can add one cubit to his span of life?" The argument is very pragmatic: anxiety doesn't get you anywhere. It doesn't do you any good. Whatever problem is causing you to feel anxious, you can be sure your anxiety will not lessen the problem. It will only make you miserable while you try to deal with it. So don't be anxious. It's useless.
4. God Delights to Adorn Things
The fourth reason Jesus gives for not being anxious is in verses 28-30—this time from the lilies. "And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?"
When you look at a lily, which has no will of its own to labor and spin, yet adorned with beautiful form and color, if you believe in God, you must draw at least this one conclusion: God delights to adorn things. But if his delight finds expression in adorning grass, that's here today and gone tomorrow, then surely his delight in adornment will express itself in how he clothes his children!
But someone may protest: God has not adorned me! He has not adorned the poor Christians of our land or overseas. Are you sure? Very few of us are dressed like Solomon. True. But we couldn't do our work if we were. I would only ask this question: Where have you ever seen a disciple of Jesus who did not have the adornment he needed to do what God had called him to do? Be careful. Do not measure the perfection of God's provision by some standard below his calling. And do not forget that when we have finished carrying our crosses on torn shoulders in this life like Jesus, there will be kingly robes for us all.
5. Unbelievers Are Anxious About Food and Clothing
The fifth and sixth reasons why a follower of Jesus shouldn't be anxious are given in verse 32: We shouldn't be anxious about what we eat or drink or wear because "the Gentiles seek all these things; and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all." Anxiety about the things of this world puts us on the same level with the world of unbelievers. It shows that we are really very much like the world in what makes us happy. And that ought not to be.
6. Your Heavenly Father Knows Your Needs
It also shows that we don't think our Father in heaven knows our needs. Or perhaps we don't think he has the heart of a loving Father. Anxiety shows that we are too close to the world and too far from God. So don't be anxious—the world has nothing eternal to offer, and your loving heavenly Father knows your needs now and forever.
7. God Will Carry Your Burdens If You Seek First His Honor
The seventh reason not to be anxious, in verse 33, is that when you seek the kingdom of God first, he works for you and provides all your needs. The best reason to stop being anxious is that when you do, God starts being anxious for you. It's such a foolish thing to insist on carrying anxious burdens which God has promised to carry for us when we put his kingly honor first in everything we do.
8. Tomorrow Will Be Anxious for Itself
The last argument in verse 34 says, "Do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day's own trouble be sufficient for the day." In other words, God has appointed to each day its portion of pleasure and trouble. And as your days so shall your strength be. So don't misappropriate God's allotted troubles for tomorrow. Don't bring them forward into today in the form of anxiety. Believe that God will be God tomorrow.

Jesus Does Not Want His Followers to Be Anxious

The main point of all this is clear and unmistakable: Jesus does not want his followers to be anxious. He does not secure his kingdom by keeping his subjects in a state of worry. On the contrary, according to verse 33, the more primary, the more central his kingship becomes in our lives, the less anxiety we will have. Jesus came, lived, died, rose from the dead, in order that he might reign as King over an anxiety-free people.
So come to Jesus. Forsake all other allegiances. Take your vow of loyalty to the King of kings. And seek first in all you do to make known his kingship over your life. This and this alone is the way to freedom from anxiety.

 

How to Stop Being So Anxious and Learn to Be Calmer

Approaches to help stop anxiety take a number of different forms, depending on the source of your anxiousness. The support you need depends on whether your feelings derive from depression, mood swings or phobia. Anti-stress techniques can help you quit feeling anxious but you may still need to rid yourself of the emotions as much as possible in order to avoid panic.

Panicked Thinking Patterns

Panicking is a frightening state that is very difficult to break. Once you have experienced significant panic, you become anxious at the very thought of the experience. This can lead to more stress, making your attempts to overcome anxiety practically futile.

Part of the problem is that you may be harboring the stress in your subconscious mind. When you try to control this emotion on a conscious level, you wind up creating more stress in the end. The cycle begins with your pattern of thought and it ends with your behavior.

Cognitive-Behavioral Approaches

You can achieve some success with the involved use of cognitive-behavioral approaches that seek to change the chain of responses you have to stressful situations. The target behavior is calmness and this goal is accomplished by exercising new thought processes in order to help stop anxiety before it even develops.
The problem with these approaches is that they tend to take a tremendous amount of time to achieve results. This is simply because you have to think about your anxiety constantly in order to make the necessary changes in your thought processes in your conscious mind. Instead of trying to control your thoughts on a solely conscious level, you might want to work with the subconscious as well.

Help Stop Anxiety with Neuro-Linguistic Programming

Think about neuro-linguistic programming as a type of communication between your mind-subconscious and conscious-and your body. These two elements need to work together effectively in order to achieve success. Sometimes, your emotions and thought processes run out of control and you need to develop a way to change the patterns of thought, emotion and behavior in order to remove the anxiousness from your experience.

NLP and hypnotherapy work as a communicative tool between the conscious and subconscious realms of your mind. These approaches seek behavioral responses as a goal. Your behaviors are very important in this process because they determine the success of the intervention.

Your mind and your body need to have open communication, otherwise they fall out-of-sync. When this happens, your emotional state can run wild while your thoughts feed into the anxiousness. You can change this by changing the way your mind and your body communicate. Your new thoughts create new emotions that foster desirable behaviors.

When you live with anxiousness and stress in your life, you feel the ramifications in nearly every aspect of your being. These negative emotions do not have to take control of your life. You can make the necessary changes in your thoughts and actions to help stop anxiety before it starts.

 

While anxiety can result from a reaction to life events and circumstances, it is also true that this condition can be related to biochemical or physiological imbalance in the body.

One quite common symptom of anxiety is a feeling that the throat is constricted and this can lead to problems with swallowing. This condition, usually referred to as 'hysterical dysphagia', usually resolves once the underlying anxiety is dealt with.

Anxiety, and in particular, panic attacks, are often associated with rapid, shallow breathing known as 'hyperventilation'. Although hyperventilation is often a consequence of anxiety, it is also true that it can worsen symptoms of anxiety.

Learning controlled, deep breathing can often help to reduce the risk of anxiety and panic attacks. 'The Breath Book' by Stella Weller (Thorsons 1999) contains advice on deep breathing and is available in good book stores.

Anxiety is often associated with an increase in the level of a substance called lactate in the blood. Caffeine, alcohol and sugar are all known to increase lactate levels and should therefore be avoided as much as possible.

Caffeine also has powerful stimulant activity in the body and is well known for its ability to worsen anxiety. In one study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry, the severity of individuals' anxiety and depression correlated with the amount of caffeine they consumed. Interestingly, patients with panic disorder seemed to be sensitive to the amount of caffeine in just one cup of coffee. It seems, for those individuals who are prone to anxiety, the safest amount of caffeine to consume is none.

Many people find that they are more likely to feel anxious or suffer a panic attack if they haven't eaten. This suggests that low levels of sugar in the blood stream may trigger attacks. For this reason, I recommend that you eat regular meals based around foods which give a sustained release of sugar into the blood stream such as meat, fish, eggs, brown rice, wholemeal bread, wholewheat pasta and vegetables other than the potato.
In addition to all this, it may well help you to try a preparation of the herb Kava kava. Rich in a group of compounds called the kavalactones, Kava kava has been shown to reduce anxiety and tends to promote greater feelings of contentment and well-being. This herb has become very popular in the West as a treatment for anxiety. You will find preparations of Kava kava in your local health food store. The recommended dose is 50 mg of kavalactones, three times a day.