7 Tiny Secrets The Calmest People Know About Anxiety
Unlock your inner calm with these secrets.
Fleur Kaan | Unsplash, dan_prat | Canva I know what it feels like to have anxiety get in the way of enjoying life. It can cripple you before you even get a chance.
Often, psychologists and therapists tell us things that make it worse. So we need to find the solutions in people who find a way to realize their true, calm nature.
Here are seven tiny secrets the calmest people know about anxiety:
1. It’s a sign of what you care for.
Anxiety needn’t terrify us, as it can for most people. We don’t need to panic because this fuels the sense of anxiety in the first place.
See anxiety as a curious indication of what you’re passionate about. You’re nervous because you care.
That’s how to make emotions your ally. When you see how they are, the anxiety will diminish.
Photo: Andrea Piacquadio/Pexels
2. Anxiety is made up.
Step out of your head and look at things objectively for a moment.
Anxiety isn’t a ‘thing’ in the way we think it is.
Anxiety is a man-made concept — a label. It describes the feeling of pressure we have when we resist an emotion.
When we resist less, and see our emotions under new guises — like ‘excitement’ or ‘energy’ — everything changes.
3. Self-compassion dissolves anxiety.
Finding compassion for ourselves comes naturally when we stop self-berating via our thoughts. A stiller mind creates the perfect environment for compassion.
We can encourage this by looking for evidence to support the truth that we are worthy of compassion. Find it, and anxiety dissipates.
4. The higher the volume of your thoughts, the more anxious you feel.
I know what it’s like to wake up in the middle of the night and stew on my thoughts until I feel panic. This happens because I continually entertain my negative thoughts.
I focus on what’s wrong, and this accelerates the cycle.
Turning one’s attention to nasal breathing or even repeating a comforting mantra (’everything is ok’) helps decrease the volume of thoughts.
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5. Poor health habits amplify anxiety.
It’s not that eating processed food makes you anxious. It’s that when you throw your body and health into disarray with poor-quality nutrition, you are more likely to fall into unhelpful thinking habits that make you feel more anxious.
Treat your body well, and you create the ideal physical environment for a calmer mind.
6. Other people can’t lower your worth.
Alfred Adler once said, ‘All our problems are interpersonal problems.’ He was right. All our suffering is ultimately rooted in what we think of ourselves in the context of other people.
This is why you possess a special kind of power when you deeply absorb the truth that others cannot lower your self-worth.
How so? Because self-worth is merely a concept you made up.
7. Being calm is an attitude.
A mistake many make is thinking that conditions need to be right in our lives for us to enjoy a sense of calm.
- The children need to be asleep.
- The finances need to be in order.
- The weather needs to be just right. Wrong.
It’s all about perception.
Anxiety is self-created. As such, to live a calm life, you must decide to be calm, regardless of what’s going on in your life.
When you’re here, you relax, your performance improves, and life gets easier.
Photo: Maksim Goncharenok/Pexels
Alex Mathers is a writer and coach who helps you build a money-making personal brand with your knowledge and skills while staying mentally resilient.