10 Ways to Manage Anxiety

When your anxiety is high it can feel all-consuming. When feeling anxious, it is helpful to have healthy coping skills. Below are a few ideas to help you mange your anxiety when needed. Our hope is this list will be helpful to you in managing your anxiety, please know there are many more ways to manage your anxiety than what is on this list. Try new things and always know you’re not alone in your struggles!

Accept the Anxiety

Acknowledge and accept that you are anxious, allow yourself to feel those emotions and know it’s not bad to feel that way. Accepting the anxiety helps you to be able to manage it better and help yourself find a beneficial solution, rather than ignoring the anxiety and not dealing with it. Accept the anxiety and then engage in your other healthy coping skills.

Talk to Someone

Talking to someone can help to ground you and bring you back to the present moment. Talk to someone that you know will help to reduce anxiety and not add to it, someone you can be completely honest with how you are feeling. Expressing your concerns to a trusted friend can help to reduce anxiety and help you to know you are not alone. This could also look like going to therapy and working through things with your therapist.

Move Your Body

Do something that will move your body, by moving your body you can change your state of mind. This can be as simple as having an impromptu dance party in your living room, taking a walk in the sunshine, cleaning your home, or even doing yard work. Have fun and be creative!

Mediate and Do Yoga

Mediation and yoga have been shown to calm the mind, which aids in reducing anxiety. Along with calming the mind, practicing daily mediation and yoga help you learn to control your breath. Controlling your breathing is a simple and easy coping skill that can be done just about anywhere you find yourself.

Listen to or Watch Something Uplifting

By listening to or watching something uplifting we are inviting good thoughts and feelings to enter our mind. By focusing on the good, we are better able to see the good in our lives. This could be a movie, podcast, book, or even music.

Exercise

While similar to moving your body, exercising has even more benefits. Choose and exercise long enough to raise your heart rate for an exteneded period (20-30 min) and gets you sweating. This will reduce stress hormones and increase endorphins, helping you to feel relaxed, happy, content, and joyful. Consistent exercise helps to give your body a better response to future stressors.

Have a Hobby

Have a hobby that is purely for enjoyments sake. The hobby can become one of your safe spaces, a place to calm your mind, and relax your body. This will allow for creativity flow, which brings enjoyment and inspiration to many other areas of your life.

Help Someone In Need

By focusing on another’s needs you get out of your own world of swirling and confusing emotions. This could be listening to a friend who needs to vent, making a meal for someone in your neighborhood, or volunteering in your community.

Set Daily Affirmations

Setting positive daily affirmations can help you to create a positive narrative. As anxiety usually involves negative thoughts and false stories. Saying daily affirmations will help you to have more of a positive mental attitude, helping you to focus on the good! Here are a few; I am brave, I am strong, I am in control of my actions, I am safe, I am prepared, and I am smart.

Laugh Out Loud

This last one is for pure fun! Find something that helps you laugh and feel good. Whether that be a comedy, funny memes, or something else – enjoy laughing to feel better.