Despite your best intentions, external factors often spill over into the way you deal with stress, right? While some people have a healthy outlet for stressful moments, many continue to struggle with anxiety on a daily basis. Do you fall into the second category? You’re not alone!
Fortunately, there are a few things you can do to minimise feelings of anxiety. One such choice is opting for acupuncture for anxiety Melbourne and other Australian cities’ residents are relying on for better mental health.
Easy to Follow Guidelines to Manage Your Anxiety
It’s estimated that one in five Australians aged 16-85 experience a mental health issue at some point in their lives. The most common of these involve depressive or anxiety disorders.
While many people seek professional help and end up using various medications to control these overwhelming disorders, a great deal of the population will rather just “deal with it”. And while professional help is often best, you can do more than you realise to manage the situation better.
If you find yourself struggling to deal with bouts of anxiety, then our article is for you! We have a few simple tips you can use to help you deal with daily anxieties.
1. Learn to Breathe
Being told to breathe or calm down when you’re feeling anxious or overwhelmed, can be extremely annoying! Still, the reality is this is about the best advice anyone can actually give you!
Continuous deep breaths are the most effective way to calm yourself down. There are a variety of breathing exercises that you can teach yourself. But, until you master those exercises, you can just focus on inhaling and exhaling in even deep breaths. Slowly counting your breaths will help your mind calm down and recentre.
2. Know Your Triggers
It’s important to know what triggers your anxiety. Then, if possible, avoid these triggers as much as possible.
If these triggers are unavoidable, limit your exposure to them for long periods. When you’re exposed to your triggers, focus on slow, deep breathing exercises. Don’t let your mind wander!
3. Learn the 3-3-3 Technique
Sometimes, no matter how much you breathe in and out or try and centre your mind, feelings of anxiety still creep into your day. There is a simple, yet effective technique that you can try:
- Sight: Look around you and name three items you see. (For instance, chair, table, phone)
- Sound: Name three sounds you hear. (For instance, cars, people talking, car hooting)
- Moving: Move three parts of your body. (Shake your hand, nod your head and blink your eyes)
This mental trick is a popular way to centre your mind and slow down the thoughts racing around in your head. By giving your mind something else to focus on, the anxiety will start diminishing.
4. Get Up and Do Something Else
If you start feeling those familiar anxious feelings creeping up on you, get up to do something else. Take a walk, fetch a glass of water, empty your trash can – pick any action that interrupts the train of thought that’s leading to the anxiety.
5. Stand Up Straight
Have you ever noticed that feeling anxious makes you hunch over? This is because we have a natural instinct to protect our upper body where our heart and lungs are located. To prevent yourself from taking that default position, focus on your posture and stand up straight:
- Perform your breathing exercises
- Stand up
- Pull your shoulders back
- Move your legs apart
All these actions will open your chest and tell your mind that you’re in control of the situation.
6. Put Funny Clips on Your Phone or Mobile Device
What device do you have with you the most? Save a few funny clips on it, which you’ll find hysterical on a normal, non-anxious day. Whether it’s funny animal clips or Tik-Tok jokesters the point is to laugh.
It’s no secret that laughter has many benefits to improving mental health and dealing with anxiety. Some experts believe that laughter helps anxiety faster than a bout of exercise. Fill your life with funny clips, movies and moments to allow laughter to overpower the negative thoughts!
7. Make an Acupuncture Appointment
Many different studies show that acupuncture is a very effective treatment for anxiety. Acupuncture works because it stimulates the body’s natural feel-good hormone. It also greatly reduces the stress hormone cortisol.
Another advantage of acupuncture is that it doesn’t have to potential to lead to any side effects that medications might.
Ordinarily, a 30-minute session every week for 12 weeks will drastically reduce feelings of anxiety.
Final Thought
For many people, anxiety can be quite crippling. Try a few of our tips when anxious moments seem to rule the day. You can also start a trigger diary and keep a note of the instances that upset you the most. That way you’ll start identifying the scenarios you should avoid.
Practice your breathing and start doing the 3-3-3 mind trick to get a handle on those runaway thoughts. You can feel a lot better before you know it!
