Ask yourself: Am I exaggerating this thought, i.e. "I better be prepared for the worst", "its over", or "I'm so stupid", "what have I done this time". Are you jumping to conclusions, i.e. "I've been having chest pains lately, I think I've had a heart attack.". Are you only focused on negative potential, i.e. "I can't win", "I never get a break", "its impossible", "it can only get worse". These scenarios are, in fact, generally out of all proportion to reality. Consequently, you can find yourself fighting off very dark recurring negative thought patterns, generated by your mind in response to such input.
The mind unconsciously generates these random and often times completely irrelevant negative thoughts that can go on for many hours on end. This function of the brain is in fact overdeveloped. Follow your worrying for a while and you will be amazed at your mind's innate ability to invent its own dark anxiety-inducing scenarios. In other words, your anxiety is a consequence of mental images that you illuminate with many vivid and imaginative ideas, consequent upon circulating and reoccurring negative thoughts. This is extremely powerful yet highly unhealthy brain food. This tendency feeds your worry habit, making your worries much worse. Challenge negative thoughts, on the basis that your brain naturally tries to confirm your fears! Try and be as objective as you can, though this can be quite difficult. In fact, being truly objective may make you feel as though you are lying to yourself, because your mind will want to confirm your fears.
You can begin to retrain your brain now, by feeding it positive food for thought! In other words, you get out of your brain what you put into it. Start building your self-esteem first, it's crucial to overcoming anxiety. Lots of positive self-talk is essential. Don't visualise bad things happening, instead start to visualise positive things happening. Start to observe your internal dialogue, what you are saying to yourself.
You then need to shift your focus from what is wrong in your life to what is right in your life. Start by saying such phrases as: I am safe, all is well, I am happy, I am calm, everything is good, I am going to be fine, I am great, I feel good, everything is great, etcetera. Keep this positive self-talk up. You are going to use it to re-program your mind, to think more objectively, more positively, instead of focusing only on negatives. At the end of the day it's your choice but retraining your brain to think more positively is the key to resetting your anxiety levels back to normal and to getting rid of your fears for good. In other words, this anxiety thing truly is all in your mind. Your mind is stuck on worry mode. To stop falling prey to your worry habit, you need to begin to break the cycle of worry.
Start reading and/or listening to motivational books, tapes and CDs. It may seem a little bit elementary, but what this will allow you to do is to provide your mind with positive input, to help change the way you think currently. Reading or listening to motivational material is like having a personal trainer encouraging you and filling your head with positive input. This will help you to fill your mind with positive not negative thoughts.
The sooner you retrain your mind not to contemplate all the potential negative scenarios you've been visualizing for years the better your outcome will be. It's most likely, in fact, that you've been worrying since you were a child. Instead, start to think of every possible thing that could go right or work in your favor for once. Be specific, and creative, have fun. See how many positive ideas you can come up with. The longer the list is the better. The point is to get you to start thinking in a more positive way about things, instead of magnifying any negative possibilities.
Your mind can only think one thought at a time, use this to your advantage, and make it a good one. When you become aware of negative thoughts start to think positive thoughts instead. Take a break from what you are doing and do something that you find relaxing. Repeat the positive affirmation over in your head. This will, in effect, re-program your brain, and slowly but surely you will gain more and more control over your negative thoughts.
Consciously re-assess your negative thoughts, think of the best way the perceived event could turn out. Focus on that instead. When your mind wanders to the imagined catastrophes that could occur calmly reassure yourself that your thinking positively and that everything will be fine, as always; after all, its a fact that over 95% of our worries never happen. At least try and match the negatives with positives, providing yourself with a more balanced perspective.
Learn to live with doubt surrounding your fears, we all have to accept doubt, its a natural part of life, accept it, accept uncertainty, expect uncertainty, and get over it. Accept that you cannot control everything, and accept that a positive outcome is most likely.
For better ways to cure anxiety, stress, panic, fear, or phobia click here: http://www.johnsreview.net/beatanxiety.html
This article was written by John Horrax.
REFERENCES:
T.H. Rogers, Panic & Anxiety - There is Light at the End of the Tunnel
Andrew Langerman, Proactive Strategies for Anxiety and Depression.
This article is solely for informational purposes. IT IS NOT MEDICAL ADVICE. No one including the editor, author, reference authors, or anyone else or any company take responsibility for any possible consequences from any treatment, procedure, exercise, dietary modification, action or application of medication which results from reading or following the information contained in this article. The publication of this article does not constitute the practice of medicine, and the information contained in it does not replace the advice of your doctor or other health care provider. Before undertaking any treatment whatsoever, the reader must seek the advice of their doctor or other health care provider.
