Tips to Tackle Anxiety

Shaking. Heart racing. Sweating. Dizziness. Disorientated. Panicking. Overly hot or overly cold. Anxiety is like being at the edge of a cliff, about to fall. And why does it happen? Because you’re about to pay for your items in a shop, because you’re taking the bus alone, because you’re one minute late, or because you’re walking to work even though you’ve done it for two years, but this random time you’re going bloody crazy. Half the time I feel like I’m insane and ridiculous, it takes a while to realise it's just my anxiety.

You try telling your friends and they talk as if it’s normal, they get it too, and you just sit there biting your lip, feeling the sweat on your head form thinking, "Is it really that normal to pass out randomly without any valid trigger?"

Well, it’s more common than you think, but most don’t quite grasp this concept of "anxiety" properly. Sure, we all get a bit panicky at times, but there are a few of us that get it a lot more. It doesn’t make you "not normal" or "vulnerable," it simply makes you who you are.

The trick is to not let it take over your life, stopping you from having fun and enjoying challenging yourself, rather than taking the bench seat all the time. You need to find your way of coping, everyone is different so some will work better than others, but there’s some things worth trying anyways.

1. Meditation

Just take a few minutes, you don’t have to be sat with your legs crossed saying "ohmmmmm" and making "okay" signs with your hands rested on each knee. You don’t even need to have your eyes closed. Just sit and focus on yourself, make yourself aware of your body, your breathing, your heart rate, breathe a little deeper and longer, stop tensing, and just take a break from reality.

2. Zen Colouring

Just taking 10 minutes out to colour an art therapy book in (which you can literally get anywhere, including tescos), however childish and immature it sounds, can be a big help. It takes your focus away from your screaming insides onto something that will provide satisfaction; this can be the same for drawing too. (Unless your drawing is anything like mine, then don’t do it. Seriously, a five-year-old could do better.)

3. Talk to a friend or family member.

Ah yes, the go-to throwing up of all your feelings. Getting them out in the open so that the burden is shared can help, too. Just having someone listen can help ease your mind. Five minutes of bursting emotions can help you release and move on.

4. Grounding Yourself

Now this is a quick easy one you can do literally anywhere. It’s a process of gradually calming and removing yourself from the stormy cloud of panic, and back into the environment you’re in. It’s a case of listing as follows:

1. things you can see
2. things you can hear
3. things you can touch
4. things you can smell
5. memory that makes you happy

5. Use the tools you have around you.

I personally love a good calming chamomile or herbal tea with an incense burning listening to Dodie Clarke or Daughter (bloody amazing singers). It’s little humble things like that which will help your anxiety settle, you can confront your feelings through lyrics and calm them with a nice warm beverage.

6. Take a walk.

If you have half an hour and the weather isn’t doing some pathetic fallacy crap, then go out, have a look around your environment, and you might find some serenity in it, as well as getting some fresh air away from the source of anxiety. When leaving wherever you are, such as your home, imagine with each step away you are leaving a bit of your anxieties, and by the time you have returned, they would ideally have dissolved in the air.

Anxiety is a horrible thing to have, but you should not let it define you, nor stop you from showing off your amazing selves. Go flaunt yourself and shake all the anxiety off. You got this.