Anxiety Coping Strategies For Uncertain Times

Anxiety Coping Strategies For Uncertain Times

Anxiety coping strategies for uncertain times lead to good mental health, more awareness, resilience, happiness, inner peace and calm. There’s the old saying “knowledge is power” and I’d add to that for today “awareness” is not only power, but the most potent way for you to disengage from collective fear and panic that’s just not serving anyone.

Never before has it been more critical to become more self aware, educated and informed so that you can take a more objective and constructive view of things.

When you’re being presented for months on end with statistics without any kind of meaningful or relevant context you have to step back and ask “What’s not being said/explained?”. Why aren’t the improvements, the recoveries and mildness of 98% of coronavirus cases being highlighted also? Why isn’t the fuller context being given?

You have to wonder about the level of consciousness of the people generating and broadcasting such negative messaging night after night – messaging that’s potentially far more harmful because of the mass fear and anxiety it creates which as we’re seeing has devastating mental, wellbeing, economic and societal impacts.

It’s widely known now how harmful stress, worry and negative thinking are to our immune systems and overall physical and mental health. The quality of our thoughts have a direct impact on our health, productivity, self-confidence and relationships.

5 Anxiety Coping Strategies For Uncertain Times

#1 Stay focused on the present moment and what’s going well

Let’s choose instead to focus on the present moment and the positives – where you have the most power and agency. Looking after yourself mentally, spiritually and physically so that you’re more present for yourself and the people who depend on you.

#2 Be the gatekeeper of your mind and focus

Key to this is taking care of your daily mindset and mental health – being the gatekeeper of the quality, accuracy and usefulness of the information you expose yourself to so that you’re not being bombarded and assaulted each day with alarmism which perpetuates feelings of fear and powerlessness and becomes addictive and hypnotic for some.

There are more positive and constructive sources of information out there if you use discernment and switch off from the nightly drama of sensationalist style news.

#3 Develop critical thinking skills

And if you don’t use critical thinking skills or listen to your own instincts and commonsense, particularly when you’re in uncharted terrain, you’re constantly giving your power away and that’s when you can slip into feelings of helplessness and inner despair.

#4 Take time out to detox your thinking, replenish and reboot

Even if you can only grab 15 minutes alone time for yourself each day, it’s worth the effort. Regular time out allows you to turn down the noise, clear out repetitive, negative thoughts and connect in with yourself and your own inner wisdom and guidance. For some people that’s having time out at their local cafe, for others it’s yoga, swimming, running, walking in nature or regular journaling. Find what works best for you and make it a regular date with yourself.

#5 Believe in yourself and learn how to hold the longer view

What you say to yourself every minute of each day is powerful. Staying grounded and at the same time optimistic and confident in your own abilities are vital skills during uncertainty.  Regularly reminding yourself that you are strong, capable, healthy and resourceful builds self confidence and self belief. As does developing the stamina and resilience to be able to hold in mind the longer range view – that this situation will eventually become yesterday’s news. It’s about focusing on how you can use challenging situations to emerge healthier, more resilient and more aware.

Anxiety Coping Tips: How To Step Out Of Fear And Back Into The Present Moment

Anxiety Coping Tips: How To Step Out Of Fear And Back Into The Present Moment

Becoming more self-aware, self-empowered, resilient and mindful – more conscious – often requires you to go against your fight/flight knee-jerk responses, which is hard. Particularly now when everyone around you is in panic and fear-brain modeTo help you be better equipped to do this, below are my top 5 Anxiety Coping Tips which will not only help you get more grounded and calm, they will set you up with some practical mindfulness skills that will serve you for the rest of your life

 

5  ANXIETY COPING TIPS

 

Anxiety Coping Tip 1 –

Stop Being Glued to the TV And Get Inner Focused

If you’ve been watching too much mainstream news and find it’s starting to govern your life, it’s time to stop doing this as it’s most likely stressing you out and exhausting your nervous system.  Learn the key points of what you need to know about this and what’s applicable to you and then switch off the media hype and all the noise. Mainstream media is designed to sensationalize, catastrophize and hypnotize you by amplifying all the fears, concerns and potential worst-case-scenarios playing out constantly in the back of your subconscious mind. This kind of daily mental diet is just not good for your body, your mind or your present and future life. Because fear, worry and stress all compromise the immune system, self-confidence and resilience.

 

Anxiety Coping Tip 2 –

Have Empathy for Yourself and Others

This current situation has triggered a roller coaster of emotions in most people which is a normal human response to such a perplexing, large-scale event.  When you allow yourself and others to have normal human emotions without judgement it creates space for you to then connect in with yourself, side-step all the fear-based thinking that the atmosphere has been saturated with and sink back into the power of the present moment. You’re then far better equipped to cultivate an ‘Inner Focus’ which stops you from being tossed around inside from constantly focusing on the outer environment.

The restructuring of our time and activities because of the current situation presents a rare opportunity to have more solitude and downtime to take a break from all the external noise and often mindless, habitual busyness of daily life and shift your focus within. Because that’s when you can finally access your intuition, your power, your inspiration – and importantly find some inner peace and calm. 

Going within, staying in the present and not getting constantly swept up and over-stimulated by what’s being conveyed on the tv gives you the space to also think with more objectivity and discernment. When you can disengage from the collective herd mentality, you’re better positioned to think and respond in more constructive, resilient, creative and innovative ways.

Sometimes that means just pressing the pause button until what you need to do next, what’s best for you and the people you care about, emerges from your own inner wisdom and guidance system. It’s not being constantly run and distressed by external noises and cues.

 

Anxiety Coping Tip 3 –

Become the Gatekeeper of  the Quality of Your Thinking

You can’t be fearful, anxious and in the present moment at the same time. Eckhart Tolle

To adapt, thrive and constructively deal with whatever life’s throwing your way it’s vital to become  the gatekeeper of the quality of your thinking. It’s learning how to recognize when you’ve been suddenly overtaken by debilitating, repetitive, fear-based thoughts.

Because if you don’t work at becoming more conscious, then you can’t step outside all of the constantly looping fear-based and negative thinking that’s going on inside your head.  

For certain things in life, we don’t always have control over whether something will happen or not. So whenever your thinking has been hijacked by negative thoughts, you need to remind yourself that your point of power is always in the present moment – so that you don’t keep defaulting to fear-brain thinking.

You have amazing resources within you that you’re probably not even fully aware of. Perhaps you already are. But if you’re really struggling at the moment with seeing yourself in an empowered way, then this is the perfect time to start.

But to do this, you need to disengage from all the external noise and turn your focus inward.

 

Anxiety Coping Tip 4 – 

Believe in Yourself

Believing that you’re an intelligent and capable human being who can handle whatever happens next will boost your self-confidence, self-worth and capabilities beyond what you thought was possible for you. It just takes time and practice because it’s often not easy to do straight away, particularly if you’re struggling wth low self confidence or you didn’t grow up around confident, can-do adults who modelled what self-belief looks like in real life to you.

The most potent thing you can control is your state of being and the quality of your consciousness in the present moment. Being able to master this gives you the luxury and advantage of being able to choose how you respond to things, rather than being stuck in reactive, stressed out mode.

Authentic self-belief requires becoming self-aware, which is one of the most worthwhile and life-changing decisions you’ll ever make.  It just takes persistence, practice and a real desire for personal growth and all the benefits and rewards that come with this. Choosing to become more conscious will improve your personal life, relationships, coping skills and your wellbeing. 

Never has there been a more perfect time to have anxiety coping tips that actually work, so that you can take advantage of this perplexing situation and connect with your heart and deeper wisdom. Something you’re only able to do by focusing inwards and adopting a calmer, more grounded and embodied stance.

 

Anxiety Coping Tip 5 – 

Become Aware of What You’re Telling Yourself Each Day

 

Your reality becomes shaped by what you keep telling yourself every single day. And much of this is influenced by the quality and style of stories you absorb from the tv, news and mainstream media. Now is the time to do a self-audit and detox your mind.

Becoming more aware of the rubbish that’s floating around in your mind each day – and of the quality of information you’re regularly exposing your subconscious to – is the fastest way to disengage from fearful, anxious, distorted and sensationalized thinking that just isn’t serving you, or where you’re wanting to go in life.

It allows you to step back into the present moment which is where you’re able to access and cultivate empowering, positive, high-quality thinking that transforms your consciousness, your life and your world.

Learning how to do this consistently will not only bring you more peace and calm, it will dramatically raise the quality of your daily thinking and your present and future life.

If you’re struggling to apply these anxiety coping tips and simply can’t find relief or a sense of purpose in such turbulent and uncertain times, I’m here to support you. To find out more, click here

If you found my Top 5 Anxiety Coping Tips useful, please share this article with someone who could benefit. 

A Quick Energetic Reboot For Busy People In A Stressed Out World

A Quick Energetic Reboot For Busy People In A Stressed Out World

It’s hard not to get drawn into everything that’s going on in the world at the moment where feelings of stress and overwhelm can become your default emotional state.

 

As well as depleting our energy physically, mentally and emotionally it’s also affecting how we view everything in life, including our confidence levels and optimism for the future.

 

If you want to regain control and manage your emotional wellbeing in an uncertain and at times highly chaotic world, then it’s important to know how to do an energetic reboot to feel grounded, more confident and centred. Start here with the energy detox and energetic reboot steps outlined in this article. Your brain, body, soul and business will thank you for it.

 

3 Steps For An Energetic Reboot In A Stressed Out World

1.   Eliminate Your Tolerations

Take some quiet time to look at what’s going on in your life and what you’re tolerating. Do a ‘Tolerations Audit’. Make a list of all the things that are making you feel resentful, annoyed, drained and uninspired. Include clutter in your list, it’s one of the biggest energy drains of all for women in particular.

 

Commit to releasing everything that you’ve been tolerating in your environment, relationships and at work so that you’re not suppressing your feelings and getting drained energetically and emotionally.

 

If there’s something that you absolutely can’t release, then be proactive and see how you can change your attitude or approach so that it’s no longer annoying and depleting you.

 

 2.  Make Self Care A Priority

With so much uncertainty and chaos in the world, self care is NOT something to put last on your ‘To Do List’. It’s essential. Regularly take time out to nourish and restore. Whether that be spending time in nature, listening to music that relaxes you, journalling, practicing yoga or other mindfulness-based activities that help you focus on the breath and stay present in the moment.

 

3.  Tune Into Your Body’s Wisdom

Your gut feel, intuition and feelings are powerful sources of information for letting you know when you’re on track and when you’ve gone in the wrong direction. Being aware of what you’re feeling in the moment and why is a powerful way to identify what kinds of things are draining your energy and what energizes and inspires you.

 

It’s about developing an ‘Inner Focus’ rather than being tossed around by constantly focusing on the outer environment. If you’re finding this a bit of a stretch, then moving forms of meditation (like tai chi and yoga) that involve your body, mind and breath are a great way to start learning how to deeply tune into what your body is trying to tell you.

 

The latest research in neuroscience shows that the most optimal brain states that enhance creativity, thinking breakthroughs, mental agility and resilience occur when you’re relaxed and in the present – not when you’re continuously outer focused and stressed.

 

Applying these steps and making them part of your daily/weekly routine will give you the energetic reboot that’s essential for coping and thriving in a stressed out world.

 

How to Manage Stress and Anxiety Naturally: 3 Simple Steps

How to Manage Stress and Anxiety Naturally: 3 Simple Steps

Helping clients learn how to manage stress and anxiety naturally has been a core part of my business for over 17 years. I’ve been able to successfully help a lot of people blast through debilitating stress, anxiety and panic attacks using natural approaches. Giving them effective self-management steps and relevant insights that empower them for the rest of their lives.

So many people that I see that have been feeling stressed and anxious for years eventually end up with adrenal fatigue, physical, mental, and emotional burn-out. Or symptoms related to what used to be labelled chronic fatigue. A huge contributing factor to burning out and compromising your immune system is not being grounded and fully in your body. This scatters your vital energy all over the place and depletes you mentally, emotionally and physically.

Not being in your body and grounded often comes from growing up around an anxious parent, or in stressful, chaotic environments where you’ve been wired to be vigilant and outer-oriented in order to survive.

When being centred and grounded isn’t modelled to you growing up, you tend to over-think things. You also tend to not trust your heart’s wisdom and gut-instincts. Taking on too much and constantly putting restorative self-care on the back burner can become your default program for how you do life.

Stress is a natural part of life and something we all have to deal with at various times. It’s when you don’t know how to step out of over-thinking and over-doing to slow down and regroup that you start to pay a price. When this goes on for years it usually leads to burn-out and a vulnerable nervous system.

You can stop this from happening to you by getting in touch with your body’s wisdom. When you learn how to turn down the noise and distractions, you’re also able to tune into your intuition and inner-guidance.

 

How to Manage Stress and Anxiety Naturally: 3 Simple Steps

 

how to manage stress and anxiety naturally: 3 simple steps by Janelle Legge

Image by Daniel Santalla

# 1 Exercise Mindfully

Activities like yoga, pilates, Qi Gong, or tai chi are perfect for getting you out of constant mind chatter and into your deeper being, and connected to the earth. It just takes one class to feel more relaxed, grounded, and less ‘mind-chatter dominant’. Whilst going to the gym is physical and great exercise, I don’t usually recommend it for grounding and mindfulness.

# 2 Connect with Nature

Spending regular time out in nature is incredibly therapeutic and grounding. Whether that be regular walks in the park, by the ocean, or out bushwalking. It’s a great way to switch off from repetitive stressful thinking, connect with the natural and grounding beauty on our planet – and breathe more deeply and mindfully.

# 3 Relax Deeply

Massage and therapeutic body work are great for pulling you out of your worry-mind. Physical therapies help you mindfully and deeply relax into your whole being. They are a powerful way to switch off and release thoughts and feelings that just don’t serve you, making you feel more centred, calm, and grounded.

Avoid the common trap of anxious over-thinking and overdoing that comes from not being fully grounded. It’s about having daily and weekly regimes in place so that you know how to manage stress and anxiety when it arises. Commit to grounding yourself and your energy on a regular basis. Do this and your nervous system and adrenals will benefit enormously. You’ll also start to enjoy longer stretches of stress and anxiety free periods.

Knowing how to manage stress and anxiety naturally is becoming an increasingly essential life skill in today’s rapidly changing world.

Title image by Mali Maeder

 

5 Reasons To Stop Spending Time With Negative People

5 Reasons To Stop Spending Time With Negative People

Are you tired of negative people draining you of your energy and enthusiasm for life? Maybe you’ve spent way too long politely and stoically listening to them? Hoping that they will finally ease up on dumping their negative vibes all over you? But they don’t.

If you’re nodding your head in agreement, then it’s time to limit your exposure to negative people, or in some cases disengage from them entirely. Because the impacts of spending too much time around negative people can be insidious and long-lasting:

5 Top Reasons To Stop Spending Time With Negative People

# 1 Increased Self-Doubt

When you’re pioneering your own path in life and feeling a bit vulnerable because you’re venturing into the unknown, it doesn’t take much for a negative person’s remark or disapproving vibe to trigger self doubt in you. It can make you start questioning whether the path you’ve chosen is the right one for you. If you don’t limit your exposure to toxic negative people by setting good boundaries, you can end up losing a lot of precious time second-guessing yourself and your decisions. Robbing you of your optimism and natural exuberance for life.

# 2 Low Self-Esteem

When the negative people in your life are family members, not getting their validation and approval can erode your self-esteem and self-confidence. If this is the case, you need to get some distance from them so you can grow your own psychological roots, and a more robust level of self-esteem. It’s about intentionally disengaging from the negative thinking patterns and beliefs that have been unconsciously passed down from one generation to the next.

#3 Compromised Wellbeing

Negative thinking is bad for your brain. So it’s important to be aware of what you’re thinking and what ideas and views you’re absorbing from other people. Good mental health and overall wellbeing requires positive, optimistic thinking. Repetitive toxic thinking is like a virus. It can deplete you physically and emotionally and compromise your immune system.

#4 Restlessness And Discontent

Regular exposure to negative thinking messes with your desire nature. When this happens it doesn’t matter what opportunities come your way, nothing ever seems quite right for you, or good enough. You struggle to value what you’ve already achieved. You’re always feeling restless and never quite satisfied.

# 5 Abandoning Your Dreams

There’s nothing more demotivating and draining than ending up on the wrong pathway in life because you’ve spent too much time listening to negative people. If this is you, then you need to get back on the right track. Because the longer you leave it, the bigger the task of course-correcting and realigning with your dreams and vision of how you want your life to be.

 

You are constantly being imprinted and shaped by the 3-5 people you spend the most time with. So if you’re wanting to live a positive, self-directed and successful life, you need to be around like-minded, optimistic people who support and encourage you. Doing this will accelerate your growth like nothing else. You’ll also feel happier, more confident and fulfilled.

 

Title image by Sarah Williams

 

 

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