How to Deal with Anxiety and Stress Symptoms

Most people face it in some form every day; some face it every hour.

Some days go by relatively calmly; some seem to assault us on every side. 

Pressures, demands and unresolved issues circle around in increasing numbers and makes it hard to know where to turn or what to do. 

Stress, anxiety or total overwhelm, whatever you want to call it, everyone who cares about anything will have faced it at some time. 

Boiling it down, it’s all just FEAR in disguise.

You cannot tackle anxiety, stress or fear whilst it remains as some generalised concept. You *have to* get specific. Any problem well defined in at least half solved.

You know there’s a problem when according to Google there are over 33,000 searches a month in the UK for the term ‘stress’. Guess what, people searching for this very broad term are not going to find any decent answers. If that wasn’t bad enough, there are over 60,000 searches a month in the UK for the term ‘anxiety’. 

So what are we to do? Are we condemned to a life of anxiety with only the occasional get-away-from-it-all holiday?

The good news is that there are a number of things you can do to silence the stress, eliminate anxiety and obliterate the overwhelm. 

You CAN take control, you CAN take command and you CAN make a difference in your own life. 

The first job of any doctor is to come to an accurate diagnosis. That’s a necessary step before any prescription is handed out. In the same way, you need to get clear on where the problem actually lies. Here are a few places to start your search for answers.

"Remember that every emotion is the slave of your perception; change the way you see something and your feelings will immediately change. 
It is essential that you understand that."

HOW TO CHANGE YOUR PERCEPTION

The first challenge is that when you are stressed, you are following hard-wired responses in your neurology (the biological ‘wires’ and connections that carry bio-chemical ‘messages’ around your body). 

When under pressure people seem to return to their habitual patterns of thinking and behaviour. Somehow in the past their brains learned that this pattern was the best one to achieve a certain outcome… The problem is that it might not be the best way forward now – it’s just that unconsciously, this pattern is still running and will ultimately steer the response.

So, you need a way to significantly interrupt this unconscious communication. Now that might sound very geeky, but thankfully it’s very easy: 

THE JOLT!

Without turning to caffeine, drugs or alcohol, do something that radically changes the physical sensations you’re feeling in your body. Burst outside and run around the block once or twice (especially if it’s cold and wet). Get on the floor and do as many press-ups as you (safely) can. Run until you’re out of breath. Taking a hot (or cold!) bath, singing or shouting out loud can do it, even simply drinking a large glass of water can do it. Find something that works for you and do it until you’ve removed the physical sensations of anxiety, stress or overwhelm… then return to the issue and see if you have a different and more helpful perspective

Better Knowledge can Remove Stress. 

Sometimes, just seeking ACCURATE KNOWLEDGE is the solution. 
If I told you there’s a man with a big gun in the next town who’s determined to kill you, how would you feel? If I then added that the man was 3mm high and that his gun was made of Plasticine, you are likely to feel a certain measure of relief.

Sometimes its PROCESS KNOWLEDGE that is the solution.
Here the first thing to do is to eradicate the overwhelm by breaking down the challenge into small enough pieces. This is 'eating the elephant one bite at a time'. Realise that anything CAN be done, as long as it's broken down into small enough tasks. And the tasks is small enough when you look at it and saying 'I can do that'. 

So how do you get knowledge? Ask someone who's done it before. If you've been getting useless answers - ask better questions!

"You need to get specific with the questions you ask if you want quality answers."

If you're feeling overwhelmed, take time to sit down and ask yourself what specifically is causing it. The root of the issue is unlikely to appear until you have taken off several 'layers' of thinking. 

Staying Grounded

Finally, I often recommend this simple yet profound verse to those I’m coaching as they are facing challenging situations. It’s best if you take time aside to repeat this out loud to yourself at least twice a day. One girl I was coaching used to use this as she swam lengths every morning. It’s amazing what affect it has on your body chemistry and your mental state if you really accept the words as your own. It’s simply this…

“I am what I am.

I have what I have.

I can do what I can do.”

(Slowly repeat these lines several times over, then you might like to move on to the next verse…)

“I love what I am (now)

I enjoy all that I have (right now)

I delight in what I can do (in this moment).”