Anxiety Relief Tips & Strategies

Last week, I was discussing anxiety with someone who wanted to know what caused the anxiety that came out of the blue without warning. He had already been told it was a thought in the subconscious that caused it but that didn’t help him much.

I knew what he was talking about, however. While discovering how to handle my own anxiety attacks, I learned that each one was triggered by a thought. This thought was little more than a flash, making it very difficult to know exactly what had just gone through my mind to trigger this fear.

It’s been quite a few years now since I became relatively anxiety-free so I had to really think back. Then I remembered that experience when that same strange fear rose from somewhere deep within me. Almost instantaneously, the anxiety would grow into panic and I felt totally out of control of my situation. Of course, that just worsened the attack.

The thought that triggered mine was sudden, unexpected and unexplainable and I knew I needed to find out what that flash was if I were to resolve my anxiety. With practice, I learned how to stop and focus on what had just happened the moment I sensed the beginning of the attack.

Surprisingly, in many cases I was able to recall what I had been thinking, looking at or worried about  that had caused the fearful thought. In most cases, I could link it directly to something that made me feel insecure. On occasion, it was based on something from my past that was still affecting my thoughts. Often, I had seen something that subconsciously reminded me of that insecurity. For a split second, the thought triggered the fear and the anxiety began.

The best I can explain it is to turn to dreams. Sometimes when we awake from a dream, we might not even know we were dreaming but we wake up feeling a certain way – perhaps comfortable or anxious. If it was an especially disturbing or happy dream, we want to remember it and figure out what was going on.

This is much like the thought flash that begins an anxiety attack.

The trick to catching these fleeting thoughts is difficult. It does take practice and you have to be prepared to let go of the anxiety and change the direction of your thoughts. Instead of focusing on the fear of the attack, focus on recalling your recent thoughts. Sometimes this alone can stop the attack.

These thoughts can be vague, but sometimes it’s possible to get the basic concept of the thought. In most cases, you can be sure it has something to do with your lack of confidence or low self esteem. At the moment you are able to grasp the thought you will begin to see this pattern.

If you can learn to make that jump in your thinking and identify those little ‘demons’ that remind you of your insecurities, you will be able to stop your anxiety before it becomes full-blown.