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Coping Skills for Anxiety

Ashwini Kulkarni Sule
Skills for coping anxiety are of utmost importance, if you wish to survive in the extreme stressful age of today. Here are a few tips on developing anxiety coping skills. Read on...
Stress or anxiety has a tendency to accumulate over time. Also, the more you react to it, the difficult it becomes to deal with it. Different people have different levels of tolerance towards stress. Thus, a particular situation may invoke different responses from different people.
The bottom line is, your life can become extremely stressful, but only if you let it happen. However, it is also possible to lead a completely stress free life, if you learn ways to cope with it.

How to Develop Coping Skills for Anxiety

Blast the Past

Often, anxiety is related to some traumatic incidence in early life. The symptoms of anxiety surface, when we face a similar situation in our adult life. As a child, we might have tried to suppress anxiety, to get rid of it. 
However, the same technique does not prove to be effective while dealing with anxiety in adult life. You should learn to get over your past by directly facing it and logically reasoning it out with yourself.
You must understand that you cannot change what happened in the past, but you definitely can change your future. Hence, do not let the dark shadows from your past loom over your present and future.

Think Logically

Logical and practical thinking is the most important anxiety coping skill that you must master. Think of this situation, where you are supposed to face the most important interview of your life. It is but natural to feel a bit nervous about it, but don't let this nervousness pile into huge anxiety which will only make matters worse for you.
Thinking about the results of the interview won't fetch you anything, it will only add to the stress. Instead, concentrate upon what you are likely to face and how you have prepared for it. Not only will it help to boost your confidence and reduce your anxiety, but will also help a great deal for your interview.

Change Your Thinking Pattern

Are you a pessimist who fails to see anything good in anything that happens to you? Well then, if you are, you must realize that this is the biggest obstacle that may come in your way of coping with anxiety. Instead of constantly thinking about how bad your life is, think of the ways you can improve it.
Changing your thinking pattern includes adopting a new and improved approach towards even the most frivolous things in your life. Remember, these little and seemingly harmless things do have a great potential to induce anxiety.

Pen Down Your Thoughts

This is a great way of maintaining a record of number of experiences that you go through everyday. Pen down your myriad experiences in your very own words and also your responses to them.
Do not bother about the language or other literary aspects. This journal will not only give you an overview of how your life is going on, but will also help you identify if there are any specific circumstances which upset you and make you anxious.
This identification may help you in your treatment for anxiety disorder, by signaling you to avoid such circumstances in future.

Healthy Lifestyle

Healthy lifestyle is the ultimate solution to the variety of mental and physical illnesses. Healthy lifestyle involves eating healthy food, exercising regularly and finally, steering clear of all the bad habits such as alcohol, smoking, excessive partying etc.
Also, maintain an active lifestyle to occupy you, especially if you are a retired individual. Often, empty mind fills itself with unpractical, illogical and unreasonable thoughts about yourself and other people around you. This eventually leads to anxiety. Hence, it is important to stay mentally and physically active to overcome anxiety disorder.
It is imperative that you learn the coping skills for anxiety, since anxiety can negatively affect your life. It is also highly contagious, so if you are anxious and stressed all the time, you will see it reflect in the behavior of your family members. This can shatter a perfectly happy home, hence treat your anxiety before it takes control of your life.