Tuesday, November 25, 2008

What does anxiety feel like?

Anxiety is tricky. When talking to people about anxiety I find that a lot of people get rapped up in the
"Why?"

They figure if they can figure out why they feel the way they feel, they will then magically disolve it but how do they feel?
I can guarantee you that the how is very different for different people. Ask someone how they are anxious and the answer is very different.
For example, I have some anxiety right now; why?
I have no idea and if I obsess on why or even think about it my anxiety might even get worse but instead; how?

How am I anxious?
I feel a little out of breath but I am not breathing heavy. I have some tightness in my chest and lower back.
As I wrote the above I felt my body start to focus on breathing and my head clear up a bit (an issue I hadn't even identified.) Actively I can adjust my seated position and engage my core to take the strain off of my back. I close my eyes and take 3 long steady breathes.
When identifying the issue, my body tries to correct the issue on it's own, from there I can take some active steps to relaxing and correcting each symptom one at a time.
Bang! My mind is clear, I remembered something important I skipped today and found the source of myanxiety.
Here are some steps to follow.
1. Identify the symptoms. You can do this out loud, on note paper, in a journal, in a blog, in notepad and save a file, just silently in you head, heck, if you paint, paint a picture. Whatever you do make sure it is expressed and you identify each feeling.
2. List actions you can take to attack each symptom one a time. If you can't fix the symptom, identify it in your head, visualize it and think about it inside and out, name it (yeah, name it) and ask yourself, is this something I can deal with. If you can't deal with it, note that and mvoe onto the next sympton, reflect back on it after you have taken others apart.
3. Focus on your breathing or practice any other anxiety management method you can find and like, examples are yoga, meditation, journaling, etc

I find this method works great for me. Once each issue is identified I find that the whole monster of anxiety is a lot easier to deal with.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

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