Anxiety…let it go

The two key things that stop most of us from going for what we really want in life are fear and lack of confidence (We're absolute experts at imagining every worst case scenario, but not always so good at seeing how right things can go!).
For many people, the secret to success is simply learning how to trust themselves, step out of their comfort zone and build their confidence naturally along the way. However, for people suffering from anxiety; the effects can not only hold them back, but be totally debilitating and make any chance of moving forwards in life virtually impossible.

Anxiety happens when your mind starts to focus on what you don’t want. You start to create pictures in your mind of all the terrible things that could happen and the worst-case scenarios. For example, a person who is afraid of flying is more likely to be scaring themselves to death and focusing on the plane crashing mid-air, than visualizing the fantastic destination that they’re going to and the great time that they’ll have when they get there.

Our unconscious mind can’t tell the difference between what’s real and what isn’t. Therefore, as we start to imagine everything going wrong, our body starts to release adrenalin as a natural response to the fear. It’s our body’s way of protecting us and getting us ready to deal with the terrible things that it now believes will happen; unfortunately, these physical effects don’t make us feel very good.

Anxiety is the mental feeling of something going wrong, along with the physical reaction to the adrenaline (the butterflies in our stomach, the tightness in our chest or the feeling of panic etc.).

The first step to dealing with anxiety is to become aware of it. If you find yourself focusing on what you don’t want to happen and begin to get the physical feelings of anxiety, it’s time to stop and think. When you’re aware of it happening, you can shift the focus from where you are, to where you want to be.

Visualise what you want to happen. E.g. if you’re feeling anxious about an interview, visualise how confident you’d like to feel, how everything goes right and how wonderfully you act etc. Look on as if you’re watching a movie of the event and play it out in your mind exactly as you’d like it to go. This trains your brain and unconscious mind how to act in the situation.

If there’s an event that you’re feeling anxious about or you have something that triggers anxiety off on a regular basis; try and get into the habit of taking 10 minutes either in the morning or evening to visualise yourself in the situation, with it going just how you want it to.

Afterwards, visualise yourself as having completed the event. This time, rather than be an onlooker, step into yourself and really feel the emotions of pride and confidence etc. associated with having successfully lived the event as you wanted it to go.

Anxiety is our body’s way of protecting us from the things that we’ve led it to believe will happen. Learn to become aware of the warning signs and acknowledge that this is just a natural reaction when we focus on the things that we DON'T want. Refocus immediately on what you DO want and how you want the event to happen. Not only will this help to stop the physical feelings of the anxiety, but also help the unconscious mind focus on achieving your desired outcome.