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How to Deal with Unwanted Anxious Thoughts

June 4th, 2010 | Author: Barry Joe McDonagh

People who experience a high level of anxiety on a regular basis, and those who suffer from frequent panic attacks, often struggle with dealing with unwanted anxious thoughts. These thoughts are typically based on a particular place, situation or thing, and may include worrying about one’s health, fear that a loved one is in trouble, or other fears that limit the person’s ability to make rational decisions.

Unwanted anxious thoughts, sometimes know as intrusive thoughts, can become intrusive to the point that they lead to obsessive compulsive disorder or other disturbances that take away from the person’s quality of life. However, there are several things a person who is dealing with unwanted anxious thoughts can do to curtail the problem. talk more about dealing with this side effect of anxiety in my book Panic Away.

In order to take control over the cycle of anxious thoughts, it’s important to take a two-pronged approach. This involves making a big shift in your attitude, and using certain visualization tools that will help you ‘see’ a positive outcome.

A shift in attitude means you need to accept that the anxiety is there, and then ‘release’ it from your mind. If you focus closely on a certain thought or idea, you’ll see that it connects to a similar thought and you probably jump from one thought to another over the course of the day. If you continually find yourself coming back to a certain negative thought, you need to accept that it’s there until you become desensitized to it.

Your emotional reaction to the thought is literally what is making the thought appear in your mind time and time again. When you can maintain a ‘neutral’ attitude towards it, it will simply disappear from view.

There are several visualization tools you can use to end unwanted anxious thoughts, and one of them involves positive imagery coupled with deep breathing. You can ground yourself and stop the cycle of anxious thoughts completely simply by breathing deeply and enjoying the feeling of safety and security for a few moments.

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Lower Anxiety by Raising Acceptance

April 28th, 2010 | Author: Barry Joe McDonagh

One of the most effective ways to lower your anxiety is to increase your acceptance of it.

Anxiety works like this. The more resistance you create towards it, the more anxious you feel. The friction of fighting against your anxious feelings fuels it on even further.

Each time you think ‘I cant handle this anxiety! I can’t handle these bodily sensations’ the more fuel you toss on the fire.

There is a way to reverse this and end the anxiety. You can do it by simply
increasing your level of acceptance towards the anxiety you feel.

Imagine for a moment if you could sit in absolute and complete acceptance of all the anxious sensations you feel? First of all, the type of thoughts you think would immediately change. You would no longer be worried about your health or if you were losing your sanity. Your attention would switch over from worry to the present moment.

Within a few minutes, the bodily sensations that triggered the anxious thoughts would be much less noticeable. They may still be present but at such a low level that they would hardly register on your awareness. Over the course of a few days, as your body adjusts to this worry free state, your general anxiety level would drop right down and you would feel a deeper sense of peace and calm.

That’s the goal I am sure you want to achieve. Of course the above example is the ideal state. No one is expecting you to automatically switch into such a high level of acceptance overnight. What you want to aim for, is to achieve this gradually over a period of a few weeks starting right now today. Here is how to start.

Decide to raise your level of acceptance for a short period each day. Decide that for just 10 minutes, you are not going to get upset by any of the sensations or thoughts you are having. You are going to accept them all to the very best of your ability. It’s only for 10 minutes and after the 10 minutes are up you can go back to resisting and worrying.

You think to yourself ‘OK I feel very on edge and uncomfortable right now but instead of getting upset about this like I always do, I am going to accept the experience fully for the next 10 minutes.

Remind yourself it is only for 10 minutes and that you have the rest of the day to worry and resist all you like.

By adopting this approach even just once a day, you will increase your acceptance of how you feel and create a very strong momentum for full recovery.

Remember you are not doing this with the sole intention of eliminating anxiety. If you think in those terms you will only be half accepting and half wondering why it is not working fast enough.

Instead approach it with the sole intention of practicing acceptance. Acceptance brings a state of calm as it flows and washes away feelings of anxiety. You reach your goal of feeling like your old self again through the act of acceptance.

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Lower Anxiety by Practicing the Art of Gratitude

March 6th, 2010 | Author: Barry Joe McDonagh

For many people suffering from high levels of anxiety and frequent panic attacks, enjoying a peaceful state of mind seems like an impossible task. The constant mental activity can make it very hard to focus and concentrate. The constant mental activity can also be the root cause of an imbalance that leads to stress, frequent anxious thoughts and even compulsive behavior.

I’ve found that one of the easiest ways to reduce anxiety is to deliberately shift your attention from your head, to your heart. You can do this simply by practicing the “art of gratitude” which I talk about in further detail in my book Panic Away.

Science tells us that regular mental practice of gratitude can change your body’s chemistry and makes it easier to enjoy a peaceful state. Learning how to be grateful is one thing, but making a conscious effort to be in the moment as you express gratitude is what will help to lower stress levels and help you achieve a calmer state of mind.

All it takes is a few minutes to get started. Just close your eyes and take a few deep breathes. Focus on something in your life that you feel a strong sense of appreciation for, whether it’s a person, your friends, your health or your work. Notice how simply thinking about these things or people makes you feel, and start to feel the flow of positive energy throughout your body. You can do this first thing in the morning to start your day off on the right track, practice gratitude when you’re stuck in traffic, or right before you drop off to sleep at night.

The goal is to keep practicing until you get used to feeling gratitude for a positive force in your life.

Practicing the art of gratitude can help to lift that mental fog of anxiety and improve your overall well-being.

Try it!

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Reduce Stress and Anxiety with Morning Pages Exercises

February 22nd, 2010 | Author: Barry Joe McDonagh

Alleviating mental anxiety you experience upon waking isn’t always easy. How often do you get up in an anxious state? Do you feel calm and well-rested when you first wake up, or is your mind just reeling with thoughts and ideas?

If you suffer from frequent anxiety attacks and panic attacks, it’s likely that you experience a high level of stress and anxiety shortly after waking. The good news is, you can use this energy in a positive way and clear out those mental blocks before you tackle the day ahead.

Julie Cameron talks about writing “Morning Pages” in her book, The Artists Way. She encourages people to set aside about 30 minutes in the morning and write down the first thing that comes to mind.

I explain how to do this in my book Panic Away, and it’s one of the most effective ways to clear out anxious thoughts and get your day off on a positive start.

Just start each day by writing down the first thing that comes to mind. You don’t have to worry about grammar, spelling or even the format. Just jot down your thoughts, even if you have no specific thing to think about.

The goal is to continue writing and writing until you’ve filled about three pages. You want your mind to be free, to just ‘spill out’ all those disorganized thoughts so you’re not holding them in your head.

Use a pen and paper – the old-fashioned writing style seems to be more cathartic for most people – and keep the pages in a notebook or folder. These are strictly your Morning Pages , so you don’t have to worry about sharing them with anyone.

This is a really great technique from Julie Cameron. Do this regularly, and you’ll soon realize that you have greater mental clarity and can focus and concentrate better throughout the day.

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