Change Your Life in 15 Ways and Beat Anxiety
Anxiety is a condition that controls both your thoughts and behaviours.
It is caused by irrational beliefs that trigger negative emotions and actions.
However there are many things we can do to beat anxiety, stopping its affect on you and improving your life.
Here are 15 steps you should take to get on the path to self discovery and happiness with anxiety levels minimised, controlled and a thing of the past.
1.
Get out of bed: Even if you get up 10, 20, 30 or even 60 minutes before you usually do you will give yourself more time to play catch up with household chores, work, playing with the children or taking time out for yourself to relax and do something you enjoy; relieving stress through the day by feeling more productive.
2.
Exercise the body and mind: Doing something active and physical whether it is the gym, mountain climbing, swimming, gardening or pole dancing keeps you energised, feeling good about your self, focused, healthy and boosts confidence.
Just as importantly is keeping your mind active as your body and mind work in sync together.
3.
Get rid of all the bad things: This can be hard in some cases but you will not be able to move forward if you are surrounded by negative things that will hold you back.
So, get out of a bad relationship, change your job, lose weight, stop hanging out with friends who are negative, move house, change your wardrobe, throw away all unfinished business and start again: Change your irrational views for healthy ones.
4.
Set yourself a budget: Current times have hit many of us hard.
Living on a budget that is within your financial means is much easier than many think and can be the difference between a stress free life and one of sleepless nights and worry.
5.
Drink less: We all like a drink but for some it is used as a tool to mask the realities and difficulties of life.
Drinking less or cutting out alcohol altogether not only saves money, makes us healthier and more focused it allows us to deal with the things that go on around us good or bad.
6.
Friends are always there: Go through your phone book every week or whenever you are feeling low and lonely and call up someone you haven't spoken to for a while or Skype, Facebook or Twitter them to get some sort of contact and affirmation that both you and them are always there for each other in some way.
7.
Change the way you eat: Eating healthily has a dramatic effect not only on your body but also your mind.
Also, try eating with someone, creating a social environment that you can look forward to and get that family feel.
Don't have the TV on or eat on the go it is a distraction that can make you overeat and distracts you from that time to yourself.
8.
Challenge yourself: We all have things that we that we get anxious over but try and push yourself a little to challenge your boundaries and perceptions.
If you have a social phobia or fear exposing yourself to situation can seem scary and do have to be carefully handled when you are dealing with them as you do not want to make the situation worse but ease yourself in step by step.
Try asking a stranger a question in the supermarket, wear a red top with your usual black skirt, walk fast so you look confident, book yourself in for a one on one dance class before a group one for example.
9.
Compliments all round: It is easy for us all to avoid compliments as low self esteem and confidence can leave us feeling inadequate and undeserved of anything good said about us.
However, by taking compliments and paying them to people, even just smiling at others can leave us feeling good about ourselves and heighten those confidence levels and making us feel valued and others valued.
10.
Take time out: Our lives are so busy that we can forget to take time out and relax.
It is important to do this as it gives us a chance to rest and just think things through or shut off.
Stress can take us over so by allocating time, even if its just once a week we will find it easier to deal with hardships, relationships and our emotions much better.
11.
Don't procrastinate: Fear, complacency and/or habits can mean that we put the things off in our life that will benefit it, even when we know this we will still look up and say '...
the diet starts on Monday', 'I'll look into to next week' or 'I'll think about it for a bit'.
When we say things like this is will usually mean that it will never happen as other things get in the way and your attitude is overtly not proactive enough.
Change will not happen if you put it off.
Life is for the living so make that change today.
12.
Know what you're good at: Putting ourselves down is a common occurrence for many of us.
However, it is important to know what we are good at and value ourselves.
This can be hard to do as we fall into the negativity trap very easily.
Write down 5 qualities you like about yourself, 5 things someone close to you loves about you (If you can't answer this just ask), 5 things you are good at, 5 things that you have done you are proud of and 5 things that you know you want to and can do in the future.
Make a list and keep it on you at all times so when you feel low or doubt yourself for some reason check the list out and reaffirm the positive attributes to your character and feel good about yourself so you know you can challenge yourself and make those changes.
13.
Try something new: Joining a dance class, volunteering, starting a new hobby or learning another language are all things that better your skills, social life, time management, focus and energy.
It not only challenges you in numerous ways but adds to your skill set and boosts your confidence.
Even if you end up being really bad at something you can learn this and move on and practice resilience.
14.
Educate yourself: The more you know the more power you have over your mind and in the world, as your approach and confidence towards things can change dramatically.
Understanding and practicing techniques to help anxiety and low self esteem is essential to combating it.
Education of any sort is useful so think of a subject you want to know more about and look it up, read, watch documentaries or TV shows and immerse yourself in it.
It will give you conversation starters and offer you a level of internal confidence as you will be informed.
15.
Keep a diary: Your day can go by so quickly that things can go unnoticed, forgotten or ignored very quickly and easily.
But by keeping a diary about anything in your day you want to change or that effects you.
You can become tuned in to what needs to happen in your life to make those permanent changes for the better.
There is no right or wrong way of doing this you can do it the classic way and write a daily account of thought and feelings or you can make some sort of spread sheet on your laptop.
No matter what type of diary you keep use it to look back at your life and see it in black and white.
Take each day as it comes and try a new challenge each day or week, push those boundaries little by little until you begin to grow in confidence, stop worrying what people think of you and walk with your head high.
Anxiety will become a thing of the past as you learn, practice and grow.
It is caused by irrational beliefs that trigger negative emotions and actions.
However there are many things we can do to beat anxiety, stopping its affect on you and improving your life.
Here are 15 steps you should take to get on the path to self discovery and happiness with anxiety levels minimised, controlled and a thing of the past.
1.
Get out of bed: Even if you get up 10, 20, 30 or even 60 minutes before you usually do you will give yourself more time to play catch up with household chores, work, playing with the children or taking time out for yourself to relax and do something you enjoy; relieving stress through the day by feeling more productive.
2.
Exercise the body and mind: Doing something active and physical whether it is the gym, mountain climbing, swimming, gardening or pole dancing keeps you energised, feeling good about your self, focused, healthy and boosts confidence.
Just as importantly is keeping your mind active as your body and mind work in sync together.
3.
Get rid of all the bad things: This can be hard in some cases but you will not be able to move forward if you are surrounded by negative things that will hold you back.
So, get out of a bad relationship, change your job, lose weight, stop hanging out with friends who are negative, move house, change your wardrobe, throw away all unfinished business and start again: Change your irrational views for healthy ones.
4.
Set yourself a budget: Current times have hit many of us hard.
Living on a budget that is within your financial means is much easier than many think and can be the difference between a stress free life and one of sleepless nights and worry.
5.
Drink less: We all like a drink but for some it is used as a tool to mask the realities and difficulties of life.
Drinking less or cutting out alcohol altogether not only saves money, makes us healthier and more focused it allows us to deal with the things that go on around us good or bad.
6.
Friends are always there: Go through your phone book every week or whenever you are feeling low and lonely and call up someone you haven't spoken to for a while or Skype, Facebook or Twitter them to get some sort of contact and affirmation that both you and them are always there for each other in some way.
7.
Change the way you eat: Eating healthily has a dramatic effect not only on your body but also your mind.
Also, try eating with someone, creating a social environment that you can look forward to and get that family feel.
Don't have the TV on or eat on the go it is a distraction that can make you overeat and distracts you from that time to yourself.
8.
Challenge yourself: We all have things that we that we get anxious over but try and push yourself a little to challenge your boundaries and perceptions.
If you have a social phobia or fear exposing yourself to situation can seem scary and do have to be carefully handled when you are dealing with them as you do not want to make the situation worse but ease yourself in step by step.
Try asking a stranger a question in the supermarket, wear a red top with your usual black skirt, walk fast so you look confident, book yourself in for a one on one dance class before a group one for example.
9.
Compliments all round: It is easy for us all to avoid compliments as low self esteem and confidence can leave us feeling inadequate and undeserved of anything good said about us.
However, by taking compliments and paying them to people, even just smiling at others can leave us feeling good about ourselves and heighten those confidence levels and making us feel valued and others valued.
10.
Take time out: Our lives are so busy that we can forget to take time out and relax.
It is important to do this as it gives us a chance to rest and just think things through or shut off.
Stress can take us over so by allocating time, even if its just once a week we will find it easier to deal with hardships, relationships and our emotions much better.
11.
Don't procrastinate: Fear, complacency and/or habits can mean that we put the things off in our life that will benefit it, even when we know this we will still look up and say '...
the diet starts on Monday', 'I'll look into to next week' or 'I'll think about it for a bit'.
When we say things like this is will usually mean that it will never happen as other things get in the way and your attitude is overtly not proactive enough.
Change will not happen if you put it off.
Life is for the living so make that change today.
12.
Know what you're good at: Putting ourselves down is a common occurrence for many of us.
However, it is important to know what we are good at and value ourselves.
This can be hard to do as we fall into the negativity trap very easily.
Write down 5 qualities you like about yourself, 5 things someone close to you loves about you (If you can't answer this just ask), 5 things you are good at, 5 things that you have done you are proud of and 5 things that you know you want to and can do in the future.
Make a list and keep it on you at all times so when you feel low or doubt yourself for some reason check the list out and reaffirm the positive attributes to your character and feel good about yourself so you know you can challenge yourself and make those changes.
13.
Try something new: Joining a dance class, volunteering, starting a new hobby or learning another language are all things that better your skills, social life, time management, focus and energy.
It not only challenges you in numerous ways but adds to your skill set and boosts your confidence.
Even if you end up being really bad at something you can learn this and move on and practice resilience.
14.
Educate yourself: The more you know the more power you have over your mind and in the world, as your approach and confidence towards things can change dramatically.
Understanding and practicing techniques to help anxiety and low self esteem is essential to combating it.
Education of any sort is useful so think of a subject you want to know more about and look it up, read, watch documentaries or TV shows and immerse yourself in it.
It will give you conversation starters and offer you a level of internal confidence as you will be informed.
15.
Keep a diary: Your day can go by so quickly that things can go unnoticed, forgotten or ignored very quickly and easily.
But by keeping a diary about anything in your day you want to change or that effects you.
You can become tuned in to what needs to happen in your life to make those permanent changes for the better.
There is no right or wrong way of doing this you can do it the classic way and write a daily account of thought and feelings or you can make some sort of spread sheet on your laptop.
No matter what type of diary you keep use it to look back at your life and see it in black and white.
Take each day as it comes and try a new challenge each day or week, push those boundaries little by little until you begin to grow in confidence, stop worrying what people think of you and walk with your head high.
Anxiety will become a thing of the past as you learn, practice and grow.
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