Take Back Control Of Your Brain And Life With These Retraining Exercises

May 23, 2018

Anxiety is something almost every single human on earth will experience at some point or another and to one degree or another. Maybe you have a big test and are anxious about the consequences of failing it, but you still move forward to take it without much ado. Such are normal occasional fears and worries. But, for others, anxiety can be severe, crippling, and even life-threatening.
 

An estimated 40% of Americans alone have been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. This number doesn’t account for those suffering in silence.

The term anxiety disorder is more like an umbrella term used to describe a number of sub-categories sharing an excessive and persistent sense of apprehension that may manifest itself with physical symptoms of heart palpitations, stress, sweating, and headache.

The main differences in the various types is within what causes the anxiety. Social anxiety, for example, is specifically related to worry, fear, and self-consciousness over how others view the person. Generalized anxiety has no specific reasoning. Panic disorders have random reasoning. And, phobias are usually related to a specific fear of one or more things, such as enclosed spaces or heights.

Treatment of anxiety is an even more complicated undertaking. There’s a plethora of medications and therapies available, but because anxiety has so many facets and individualities, obtaining the right combination of medications and therapies can be a long, tedious, and discouraging process for sufferers.

If you’re one of the many frustrated by your medicinal options to treat anxiety, please don’t give up hope. Research is exploring how the mind operates under anxiety and natural ways to achieve a healthier state of mind, specifically in brain exercises to stop worrying about that which is out of your direct control. Many have had success at reducing, if not eliminating, anxiety with such approaches. Let’s look.

Professional opinion leaves the origin of anxiety up for much debate. While some believe it’s purely a chemical imbalance, others believe it may be more a combination of environment and biology. In other words, anxiety may be caused by logic, emotion, environmental conditioning or circumstances, and/or how your brain responds to chemical processes.
 

Determining your own origin of anxiety may help you determine how, why, and when you’re experiencing anxiety and thus provide a means to stop or prevent it as you become more mindful of yourself and surroundings.

Experts, such as the Calm Clinic, recommend to utilize such coping skills even if your anxiety stems from chemical origins because the skills will still help you manage the extent by which the anxiety affects you.
 

According to The Centre for Applied Research in Mental Health & Addiction, anxiety sufferers should recognize the origin of anxiety and then train the brain to stop worrying about it if it’s out of their control.

What this means is that you’ll challenge your anxious thoughts, confirming if a problem is real or perceived, collecting information to evaluate the problem, solving if you can, and setting it aside if you can’t solve it.

Scenario: you are worried to the point of paranoia that someone at work has a problem with you. Confronting might be to ask the person outright if they have an issue. Collecting information might be to ask coworkers their opinions. If a problem is confirmed, then you’d ask yourself if you can do anything to solve the issue, such as not helping yourself to the person’s office supplies. If the problem is beyond your control, perhaps because of conflicting personalities or because you’re performing your job duties, then you set the problem aside as unsolvable and therefore not worth worrying about.
 

The key to both of the above retraining steps is in remaining calm and rational when presented with stressors. This isn’t a skill set that will come easily nor overnight for those with severe anxiety. However, remember that the nature of the anxiety is an overreaction.

It will require conscious and consistent effort to retrain your thinking processes to rely upon coping skills and then challenge thoughts before automatically viewing all stressors as monumental fight or flight situations. Breaking the chain of overreaction is crucial to controlling anxiety.
 

In closing, the great line is that ‘no one said it would be easy.’ Whether you’ve been conditioned by the environment to overreact or whether the release of biology is at fault, it can be quite difficult to see the truth through panic. You’ll have to practice your newly found coping skills during the calm and quiet moments, feeding your brain positive and realistic thoughts to prepare it for the stressful times of need.

Medicinal remedies may act as anchors when you find the right sources and dosages, but it’s these coping skills that will truly offer you stability over the long-term.
 

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Our content is created to the best of our knowledge, yet it is of general nature and cannot in any way substitute an individual consultation with your doctor. Your health is important to us!