Ten Antidotes to Anxiety

Are you feeling anxious or overwhelmed with anxiety? Are your nerves at screaming pitch?  It is time to do something about it.

Anxiety is fuelled by stories that your mind makes up, usually scare stories about the future and stories about your own flaws and failures.  You need to notice these stories that make you anxious and write them down.  This is the important bit.  Your mind is designed to be biased towards the negative point of view, which means the stories it makes up are biased, which means that they are not true.  When you have written down the stories that make you anxious write down the correction to the bias in each story.  Here are a few types of negative thinking you might recognise, along with how to correct their negative bias 

Negative story                                                    Antidote

1. Worrying what other people think

2. Worrying about what might happen

3. Ruminating over the past

4. Fearing exposure

5. Fearing being out of control

6. Fearing other people will let you down or hurt you

7. Worrying over lack of progress

8. Not having what you want and always wanting more

9. Labelling your deficiencies, I am a this or that kind of person 

10. Not feeling good enough

1. Focus on what do I think

2. Imagine the best outcome

3. Forgive yourself or others

4. Challenge yourself

5. Practice relinquishing control

6. Remember everyone struggles and focus on your wellbeing

7. What do I really think and want?

8. Consider, what do I really need to be happy?

9. Focus on your strengths and remember that you are always changing

10. Remember everyone is equal and so are you

It does take practice to retrain your mind from its negative habits because you are literally rewiring your brain, but it is possible and it is seriously worth it because controlling your anxiety makes life a whole lot more enjoyable.

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