The Little Things
July 16, 2014

Stress and anxiety- we’ve all got it at points in our life at varying levels. Unfortunately, it’s not something that we can shake (and in reality, it wouldn’t be good to get rid of all stress and anxiety! Some of it is very normal and appropriate for our situations.), but with a little work, we can definitely get to a point where we can learn to deal with it in healthier and more appropriate ways.

Dealing With Stress and Anxiety

Here are a few ways to appropriately deal with your stress and anxiety:

Watch Your Language: The words that we choose to use can greatly increase or decrease the amount of stress and anxiety that we have (this is the connection between thoughts/words, feelings, and actions). Words like always and never (black and white thinking) and horrible, terrible, awful, and miserable (catastrophizing words), and other distortions take the situations we’re in and increase the anxiety. Words mean something, and we react in accordance to the severity of words! Learning to avoid language that isn’t equal to or appropriate for the situation can help your anxiety quite a bit!

Work on changing your language (use something like the Thought Record to help!). Forms like The Thought Record and the REBT self help form can help you work on changing your language, but can also help you deal with stress and anxiety in the moment. The forms are straightforward and quick and easy to use! Implementing and maintaining healthy boundaries is really important for controlling our stress levels.

Use Grounding Techniques. Grounding techniques help by drawing you into your senses in the present moment. This is often used for those experiencing trauma related anxiety, but it can be applied to any stressful or anxious situation.

Determine what you can and cannot control. This has been a HUGE thing for me personally. Owning our own reactions, and learning what ownership vs. influence is in our lives can take away a lot of unnecessary stress and anxiety in our lives.

Use Deep Breathing and Progressive Muscle Relaxation. When we’re stressed, our breathing tends to become more and more shallow. Focusing on deep breathing gets oxygen into our bodies and helps fight against stress hormones. Here’s a tip: practice deep breathing when you aren’t stressed so it’s an easier skill to tap into when you are stressed!

Create a list of relaxing, life-giving activities.  Being proactive in planning when you aren’t stressed for times that you are stressed is really beneficial. Come up with a list of activities that are not only relaxing, but also recharging and life giving. Think about the things that breathe life into you, or the things that fill you with energy and excitement, and make sure to do them too along the way.

Of course there are plenty of other ways to deal with stress and anxiety, but I’m throwing a few things out there that might not be the first things that people think about! No matter what, it’s important to be proactive and plan and practice outside of stressful moments so that you can handle those moments in healthier and more effective ways.

Now it’s your turn to share! How do you like to manage stress and anxiety in your life?

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