Fighting Anxiety
Posted: Friday, April 08, 2011
by Sulagna Dasgupta
Love in India
Have you ever felt restless? Nervous? Without clues as to what to do? Feeling trapped in un-escapable circumstances?
If you have I can bet your productivity was not at an all time high at this point.
That’s what anxiety is-an all-encompassing gobbling-everything-up wiping-everything-out black hole. And sometimes you don’t even know what exactly you’re afraid of. The most mind-numbing fears are often in your subconscious. Your conscious mind can’t reach them. May be some childhood trauma, some dream, some sudden unexplainable experience… unknown fear can have many possible roots.
So what do you do? You have to get on with your life, so you have to find your energies even if the above sounds like an apt description of your mental world. Also, how about waking yourself up before you unconsciously start using your anxiety as an excuse for not being productive?
Change your context:Whenever you feel a surge of panic, leave the place immediately. If you’re at work, go for a coffee. If you’re at home, go for a walk (or may be take a shower!). A change of our immediate physical environment often works wonders to our mental environment. You might get to see some obvious solutions to your problems, which were hidden under sameness and immediacy. You might even stumble upon totally new ideas about yourself and your life.
Open up:Sharing lightens every negative emotion and multiplies every positive one. So open up-talk to the closest among your friends and family about your anxiety. Most of the time they are able to see things that you can’t. And so they might be able to identify the source of your fears, give helpful suggestions, make you more comfortable by sharing similar anecdotes, help put your situation in context and much more. People, as we know, are the key to-well, everything! And that holds true even when it comes to something crucial and deeply personal like your freedom from your inner fears.
But in this case (as, in fact, in any case) you have to choose your confidants very carefully. They can’t be anyone other than the people who you trust 110%. I can’t stress this point enough, and you probably understand why. When you’re telling someone about a weakness of yours that’s so deep inside your heart, you’re giving them information which can easily be used to manipulate your thoughts, change your beliefs about yourself, destroy your confidence and eventually put you under complete control. So needless to say, don’t even think about sharing your story with someone who you think has any chance of turning against you at any point!
Read, read, read: Don’t you sometimes feel that books are our best friends? The unique power of good books lies in the fact that they teleport us to a completely different world the moment we open them. So if you turn to quality literature-fiction or non-fiction-for respite from your anxiety, you instantly have something to not just shut out your immediate world, but also entertain you, teach you things, make you think, evoke your sensibilities and enrich your mind. And the result of all of these? More intense reflection, introspection, discoveries and ultimately more inner peace.
However, this suggestion too, comes with a caveat. Yes, you’ve guessed it right-that you need to choose your books carefully. A racy page-turner, while great for instant shutting out of reality, can hardly add any real value to your mental world. It’s tempting, but consciously choose books which will make you think.
The “small things”:Anxiety and fear have an amazing ability of making you nonchalant. You know what I’m talking about-they occupy your mind to the point of making everything else irrelevant. You feel like you don’t even have the energy to get up in the morning and make yourself a cup of tea. The only feeling in your heart is, “What’s the point?” Giving in to such tendencies usually ensures your descent into darker despair and greater anxiety. The moment you feel “What’s the point of doing something trivial like combing my hair/ putting on lipstick/ drinking a cup of tea?”…be very careful. Once you start believing in this what’s-the-point dialogue, soon enough you’ll hear a voice inside your brain telling you, “What’s the point going to work today?” No. You can’t let that happen. So nip it in the bud-the moment you have the temptation to let go of the tiniest and most trivial task, be firm and do it anyway.
Your passion, your survival:When in the grip of anxiety, you lose enthusiasm, ‘cause you’re just too busy surviving. This loss of drive is a general all-encompassing loss, not limited to any one realm of your life. And the first victim of this numbness is your passion-something you do just because you love it, something outside your personal and professional responsibilities.
Our passions are our windows to freedom. They give us a way of being who we really are. They give us unadulterated happiness, and hence, are essential to a healthy, fulfilled life. Especially when you have a challenge like anxiety to battle with, your interests can give you the much needed peace and contentment. Set a rule for yourself-of spending a stipulated amount of time every day/every week on something that interests you. This is one of the most foolproof ways you can ensure you don’t sacrifice your passions for your anxiety. After all you can’t let your worst enemy gobble up some of the most beautiful things of your life.
Anxiety is a state many of us go through. It doesn’t mean a departure from “normalcy”, it doesn’t mean an end of life. All of us can take simple steps to fight it before it escalates.
What do you think? Let me know.
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)Fighting anxiety is not an easy thing. You have given very practical suggestions. Thanks Sulagna for sharing it with us.Thank you Hifzur for your comment. I'm glad you find my article practically useful. :)
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