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My Key to Unlocking Anxiety

Posted by Tom-N-Texas on January 24, 2005 at 17:44:28:

Here's my take on how to cure anxiety. It's so simple, it's borderline genius.

It seems to me that a lot of people go at alleviating their anxiety in the wrong way. Usually this takes the form of either quashing their emotions, trying to ignore their feelings, or sweeping their true fears under the rug. (By the way, I'm guilty of all these.) Although some of these tactics may occasionally help, I don't think it's the real answer.

Think about it. It's really very simple. To make an analogy, let's play like you are in a bad mood. Now let's play like you are sick and tired of being in this bad mood -- and you want to get out of it. What's the best way to do this? Would a good strategy be to simply IGNORE your bad mood? Or, how about if you just tried to forget about it and play like it wasn't there?

Of course, neither of these tactics would work very well. So how DO you get out of a bad mood? Well you don't do it by merely ignoring it or simply denying its existence! In fact, the key to getting over a bad mood has NOTHING at all to do with confronting the bad mood directly. The REAL answer is to change or divert your mindset by thinking or doing something else that makes you happy. Maybe that thing is listening to your favorite song. Or maybe visiting a friend. Or writing a letter. Or accomplishing something productive. You get over a bad mood, NOT by dwelling on it, or by trying figure out why it's there, or by sweeping under the rug, but by REDIRECTING your thoughts to something else.

When I get in bed at night, I no longer say to myself: "Ok I need to calm down." or..."I need to slow my heart-rate down." Or anything like that. Instead, I deal with whatever anxiety I have by completely redirecting my thoughts to something pleasant or mildly interesting. Sometimes I just qucikly get into a "dreaming" mode right from the start. (I'm not sleeping, obviously, but I'm focusing my thoughts on something else more worthy than figuring out how to somehow subdue my anxiety.)

Of course, you can't do this all day long. But it seems to be quite effective once you get into bed. And the cool thing is once learn the art of re-directing your thoughts, your anxiety will strangely vanish because there's simply not room up there for both at the same time. You have to make a mental choice on WHICH you'd rather think about.

This really is a powerful tool. Start practicing and experimenting. It's this mindset I use each night when I go to bed.

Hope this helps. Tom


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