Are you often overwhelmed by anxiety and are looking for good coping techniques rather than having to resort to meditation?
And does it really make it difficult to make decisions, take action, or deal with anything that frustrates you head-on within those anxious moments?
If so, then you need a better coping strategy because there is simply no human being who can guarantee that they have not been overcome by a nervous thought.
This is why these nine mentioned ways to relax your mind below, wont require that you try yoga or light candles to cure it.
They actually work and you won’t have to sit alone for 20 minutes with those thoughts that are making you anxious either.
All these tips are how to handle your anxiety within your lifestyle so you can have control at the moment it strikes.
Here are 9 ways to calm down your anxious mind at a moment’s notice!
When you learn to calm down the winds of your mind, you will enjoy great inner peace. Remez Sasson
Related Topics:
9 Ways To Calm Your Mind (Without Meditating)
1. Try to see your anxious thoughts as assumptions (not as evidence).
When you are feeling anxious and nervous your brain is trying to shield you by imagining what can happen so it can avoid risk — but that doesn’t guarantee that it will happen!
That’s why it’s safe to say that you probably assumed the worst-case scenario if you have no clear evidence that the results of your overwhelming thoughts will ever occur.
Know that you may spiral out of control even further if you hang on to every single one of your assumptions as actual evidence.
When this happens the best thing you can ask yourself at the moment it happens is “Is this true?” or, “Will this actually happen to me?“
If your response to these questions is no?! Then you can safely agree that you have imagined the worst-case scenario.
Start saying mantras that will calm you down like … “I am enough” or “This too shall pass“, to calm yourself down at the moment your anxiety needs it.
2. Stay in gratitude.
We all know this, but we don’t follow it actively which is to be grateful in the times when we feel the most anxious and nervous.
Life coached can’t stress this enough that holding a daily log of appreciation will let you take some of your burdens from the day to view them from a perspective of gratitude and love.
So whether this pressure comes from stress and resentment or sadness — thankfulness will allow you to look at the glass half full instead of half empty.
When we adopt these simple habits of being grateful the beauty of life will have a fighting chance to start to reveal itself to us even more!
You’ll start to see the very best in every day little things and you will be even more motivated to cultivate more things to be grateful for.
Here’s the thing, your brain likes it. It feels good to give thanks. Your brain doesn’t want to feel nervous and anxious just as much as you do.
You just have to push yourself through the uncomfortable pain to get there.
And by remaining in gratitude you will start to take your stressful thoughts away and return yourself to the driver’s seat of your life!
Recommended:
Listography One List a Day: A Three Year Journal
Related: How to Stop Being Miserable & Be Happy
3. Write out your worries and fears.
In a wide range of research, it has been found that emotional writing and writing about the difficult emotions you have about your life or a specific situation are beneficial to not only calming you down but also allowing your brain a chance to separate it.
Most fears are recurring thoughts, and you can better work them out if you actively tell your brain that you are aware of them!
Set a specific amount of time to write down how you feel about all the unpleasant things that are happening in your world when you are trying to calm the winds of your mind.
This has been shown to tremendously help with anxiety and also help mild to moderate depression.
4. Reduce your caffeine intake.
Do you often get jittery when you drink caffeine?
If so, then it’s best to check your caffeine intake. For many of us, caffeine can make us feel nervous and jittery so that in turn can lead to anxiety and anxious fearful thoughts.
If you also feel amped up, anxious way too often, and have trouble falling asleep? Then you may have found your culprit.
Try cutting back on some caffeine sources, such as chocolate, coffee, and tea, and gradually see if your anxious thoughts start to disappear.
Related: How to Set Intentions for the Day – 10 Easy Steps
5. Call someone and Socialize (get out of your head).
At times, too much alone time can lead to anxious thinking. And this rings true whether you are an introvert or an extrovert.
It is a common belief that introverts are exhausted by their energy when interacting with other people and that’s why they tend to be more isolated.
But this is also only the case if you’re interacting with certain people (the wrong people), personalities, or certain environments.
Know that anxiety and anxious thinking can also take shape when you’re in your head too much of the time OR have limited social interactions with others or the wrong people.
So if you are not socializing enough Or you are socializing but you find yourself feeling judged or feeling nervous with those interactions?
Call someone that’s the closest to you to relieve yourself Or figure out if you need to drop a toxic person in your life.
You can easily overcome your fear and anxious thinking by getting out of your comfort zone, talking to someone else, separating yourself from what’s always playing in your mind, or separating yourself from someone who is bringing up those feelings within you.
6. Stay away from alcohol.
It comes as no surprise that alcohol disturbs a lot in life. That you won’t relax sufficiently if you get disrupted sleep.
Studies have shown that when your sleep cycle gets disrupted by alcohol this can increase fear, anxiety, and depression during the day.
Not only that, but it also disrupts your hormones, increases your blood sugar, and makes you eat highly processed unhealthy foods to cure the hangover, which is horrible for your waistline.
So, if you are drinking too much alcohol and are simultaneously suffering from anxious thinking? OR you are really keen to take away your anxiety and make your mind run more smoothly during the day?
Know that alcohol plays an important factor in your feelings if you drink too much.
It is strongly recommended that one drink per day for women and two drinks per day for men is fine but any more and you will disturb your sleep and bring on more anxious feelings.
7. Avoid processed foods and sugar.
This takes us to food and sugar processing within the body.
Because when it comes to anxiety and anxious thinking the only way to integrate refined food and sugar into your life is to know some facts about them!
You have to know that when you eat a lot of processed meats, fast foods, fine cereals, sweets, pastries, and high-fat dairy products you are more likely to fell more worried and depressed.
Here just some foods/drinks to avoid if you suffer from anxiety or depression:
- Sugary Soda – Sugary-sweetened beverages such as soda have a clear connection with depression. If you’re looking for a pop try sparkling water with lemon.
- White Bread – After you eat it, the highly processed white flour turns into high blood sugar almost immediately. That can cause anxiety and depression with high energy spikes and crashes.
- Foods and drinks containing aspartame – this artificial sweetener is strongly linked to anxiety and depression. Check the ingredients for aspartame.
- Ketchup – 4 grams of sugar per tablespoon could be heightening your anxious thoughts.
- Energy drinks – These can trigger rapid heart rate, anxiety, and disturbances with your sleep cycle.
- Partially hydrogenated oils – these are all linked to depression and can be found in fried foods, pizza dough, cakes, frostings, cookies, and crackers. Bottom line — check your labels!
Our brains are really responsive to the types of fuels that we provide them, and good food goes a long way for great mental health.
8. Track your mental chatter.
Have you ever been so worried about your thoughts that it keeps you up in the night? Or do you get in fights with the past and just can’t get over what happened to you?
A lot of us do!
But if we criticize ourselves because we feel bad about the things that we resent, we start to worry about them and this worry can turn into an obsession if we don’t pay close attention!
This is why you can naturally relax your mind and automatically act as a spectator to your own internal dialogue — by actively drawing attention to your thinking processes without engaging with them with a reaction.
This is very like meditation, but you don’t have to do this with closed eyes!
Just be an innocent spectator with your mind and ask yourself questions if you feel anxious about it like… “Is this the truth?“, “What do I know for sure?“, or “Have I already learned this?”
Chances are you’ve learned from them!
Besides, if you know it won’t happen again? Then there’s nothing that that mental chatter is teaching you, so it might as well be positive.
Related: 14 Hacks That’ll Help Solve Your Small(ish) Sleep Problems
9. Start serving others.
Chances are when you are feeling the most anxious and on edge, you are most likely thinking about yourself.
When you start to think anxiously this way, the best way out of them is to get out of your inner thoughts and redirect your mind to something or someone else.
Shifting your concentration will relax a racing mind and the best way to do this is to concentrate on serving and helping others.
You can make a point of contacting someone you might think that may need help, you can spend some time in voluntary service, or you can develop anything you think (as a business) that can help serve others in a more meaningful and positive way.
Focusing on the well-being of the community can also give you a sense of purpose and that can be extremely revitalizing to make those fearful thoughts seem less bad as you’ve originally thought.
Isn’t it nice to learn that these insights above are all tied up with anxiety and depression? That the way you eat and think can all be changed if you just know what your trigger is. A restful mind takes time, but you can get there!
You may also like:
- How to Set Intentions for the Day – 10 Easy Steps
- 10 Brilliant Ways to Master Self Discipline
- How to Stop Being Miserable & Be Happy
- 12 Things You Should Probably Do Every Single day
- How to Wake Up Early Without Feeling Depressed
Author: Rebecca
Hi, my name is Rebecca and I am the face behind Everything Abode! I am a lifestyle and wellness writer based out of Vancouver Island. When I’m not writing or exploring mountains and beaches with my furry rescue, I love spending time learning creative ways to manifest a healthy home. Thanks for stopping by!
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