Coping with anxiety

Understanding anxiety and its effects is one thing; coping with it is another. How can we manage anxiety? Having experienced anxiety attacks myself in the past, here are some methods I've used to cope with anxiety.

1. Deep breathing

a. Deep breathing is applied to slow down the heart rate. The application of deep breathing is by inhaling through your nose to the count of 5, holding it for 5 second, and then exhaling through your mouth to the count of 5. Repeat until you feel calmer.

2. Visualisation (safe space)

a. Visualisation can help to calm the mind by visualising that you’re in a safe space. Here are steps to apply visualisation technique:

i. Close your eyes

ii. Focus on your breathing (encourage deep breathing)

iii. Visualise a place that you enjoy or love (e.g. by a seaside surrounded by clear blue sea)

iv. Use your senses and identify what you see, hear and feel.

v. Affirm yourself with positive words of affirmation.

vi. Keep breathing and transition yourself back to reality when you feel calmer.

3. Moving

a. Going for a walk, stretching or simple exercise can help with blood flow. Improved blood flow provides better oxygen delivery to the brain, which helps with calming of the mind and reduce anxiety feeling.

4. Grounding

a. Grounding helps by focusing on the present moment, sensory engagement with the surrounding and it is also a form of distraction to the mind.

i. 5-4-3-2-1 technique is one of the grounding techniques that uses your 5 senses to focus on the present.

1. Identify 5 things you see.

2. Identify 4 things you can touch.

3. Identify 3 things you can hear.

4. Identify 2 things you can small.

5. Identify 1 thing you can taste.

ii. Deep breathing and meditation is another form of grounding technique.

5. Warm bath

a. Taking warm bath is a technique that helps with mind and physical relaxation to help reduce anxiety.

i. It helps tense muscle to relax and reduce the anxiety intensity.

ii. Sensory engagement to the sound of water and feeling of warm water running down your body helps with muscle and mental relaxation, which helps to reduce anxiety.

6. Listening to soothing music

a. Music is a powerful tool that has therapeutic properties to help alleviate anxiety and promote calmness.

b. Focusing on the instrument, melody and lyrics in a music helps the mind to disrupt negative thoughts.

i. Create a playlist with your favourite uplifting songs.

ii. Incorporate your playlist with different genre of music such as classical, jazz and sound of nature.

iii. You can use music and incorporate it with other coping anxiety techniques.

7. Talk to someone (share feeling)

a. Taking to someone is powerful way to cope with anxiety in a short and long term emotional support.

i. Choose the right person to open up about your feeling (it can be a physical or remote conversation through a phone call or video call),

ii. Be honest about your anxiety struggles.

iii. Be open to different perspective on the situation.