Self-help for Anxiety
Simple Techniques Can Alleviate this Common Problem
Anxiety is a common and distressing ailment. Simple self-help methods can do much to lessen its effects and improve well-being.
Anxiety – excessive worrying and its attendant complications is very common. Almost everyone has suffered from it from time to time and quite a few put up with it for much of their lives.
Symptoms vary. In mild cases lack of concentration, muscle tension and a brain that won’t switch off are common. In severe cases you can add bowel disturbances, dizzy spells and palpitations.
If you have any of the above symptoms it’s a good idea to visit your doctor for reassurance that they are due to anxiety and nothing else. Having done that you can then set about dealing with the problem yourself through a few simple techniques.
What’s Going on in Anxiety?
At least three things. Firstly, the brain is in overdrive. You are constantly thinking about problems real or imagined.
Secondly, all this mental activity creates muscle tension. You may be aware of this just in your neck but it occurs with most muscles and leads to backache, restless legs and headaches.
Last but not least your breathing pattern goes haywire. It becomes shallow and rapid and you breathe with your chest muscles rather than with your diaphragm. It’s thought that this disturbed breathing pattern is responsible for some of the other symptoms of anxiety, namely: bowel disturbances, fatigue, dizziness and palpitations. In its full-blown state this is known as hyperventilation syndrome.
Calming the Mind and the Body.
The aim of this method is to deal with all three of these aspects of anxiety. It’s a simple combined meditation technique, which like all such techniques, is easy to carry out but takes practice to be effective.
Sit somewhere quiet and comfortable. Keep your back straight and supported. Fold your hands across your lap. Start by taking two or three deep breaths and try to relax.
Beginning with the toes of the right foot, curl them up as if trying to pick up a pencil with them; you will feel the muscles of your right leg tighten. Hold the toes and leg like that for a few seconds and then let go. Feel the tension in the leg drain away. Repeat with the left toes and leg.
Next clench a fist with your right hand and feel the arm tighten as you do so. Hold for a few seconds and then relax. Repeat with the left hand and arm.
Then take a deep breath in and shrug your shoulders, holding them like that for a few seconds. Breathe out and let your shoulders drop. Stay relaxed for a minute or so and then move onto the breathing exercises.
Breathe in slowly and say to yourself as you do so ‘I breathe in’, Feel your breath going down to your abdomen which will gently rise. Then let yourself breathe out, don’t force it just let it go. Feel your abdomen fall. As you do this say to yourself ‘I breathe out’.
Keep repeating this for about ten minutes, all the time concentrating on your breath passing in and out of your body. Some people find it easier to concentrate on the rise and fall of their abdomen rather than saying ‘I breathe in and I breathe out’, it doesn’t matter which you do. It’s important to keep your mind on your breathing, ignoring intruding thoughts.
Try to practice at least once per day. You’ll find it difficult at first but if you persist you will achieve considerable muscle relaxation and a better breathing rhythm. And of course while you’re practicing all this your mind can’t be worrying.
