Anxiety Reduction

What do you do when you feel anxious to balance yourself?

I have dealt with varying levels of anxiety most of my life and I was wondering if any of you had come across some effective methods of lowering tension and calming the mind.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

When I'm stressing out and anxious over schoolwork, I paint my toenails.

I kid you not. I'm such a girl.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by nadienne

When I'm stressing out and anxious over schoolwork, I paint my toenails.

I kid you not. I'm such a girl.

I think that's kinda cute, actually. I used to have a ton of nailpolish but I spent more time painting other things than my nails... but that's just because I'm weird... >_>

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

When I was young, I had uncontrolled anxiety attacks that were debilitating. They were basically extreme fight-or-flight responses coming out of buried stress that I hadn't dealt with. My doctor suggested these as a means of controlling stress to prevent anxiety attacks.

Meditate. Take some time out to just sit a quiet place and focus on your breathing. Steady, controlled inhales through the nose. Steady, controlled exhales through the mouth. The goal is to remove the noise from your mind and to achieve a singular focused 'unfocus'. Instead of having your brain constantly leap from thought to thought, try to relax, open up, and take in everything around you at once without actually focusing on a single thing. Or, concentrate on something trivial. Try to control your heart rate, or rest your hands gently in your lap such that your thumbs are one on top of the other, but no quite touching. Try to keep your thumbs as close together as you can without them touching each other. This actually takes quite a bit on concentration since if you relax, your thumbs will fall together and your own blood flow makes them twitch ever so slightly.

Just taking some time and focusing on your breathing alone helps a lot in the midst of an anxiety attack.

Hard excercise. It gets the blood moving, and releases natural endorphines. Try to do it during the day or early in the morning. I find that I sleep more soundly and feel more rested when I wake if I get a nice workout in the day. You also come away from the workout feeling energized, more focused, and filled with a sense of vigor.

Take up a hobby that requires some concentration. I like to digitally illustrate things, photo-manipulate, or mess around with web/network applications in my free time. It requires focus, which pushes out stressful distractions from my mind, as well as gives me a sense of accomplishment that I can use as a base to get what needs to get done out of the way.

If I can't get to sleep, I'll get a nice hot cup of tea, a sketch pad, my 0.3mm lead pencil, and turn on some music through my iPod. I let the music guide my imagination, and then project that onto the paper. After about an hour, I'll be tired enough and calm enough to get some sleep.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

It's pretty obvious that I am almost perpetually in a state of anxiousness. I wholly admit that I worry about others way too much, which causes me a lot of anxiousness. Personally, I have no real REASON to be that anxious constantly.

But I end up grinding my teeth in my sleep, sometimes waking up gasping for air, unable to breathe. I think it's a good indicator that I stress myself out over little things.

I really have no good method for chilling out unless it means being by myself a while. Lighting some candles, watching a tear-jerker. Or maybe making something which makes me feel productive and better about whats going on.

I always try the distraction method - which is like taking Tylenol. I makes you forget about the pain - until the distraction wears off. ;_;

I was speaking idiomatically.

I am mellow as hell, but on the rare occasions when I do get stressed out, I sleep. I have no idea if it helps or not, but it's just something my body makes me do when I'm stressed, so it must be the right thing.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

I'm almost never anxious. The only time I am is when something goes terribly, terribly wrong and I have no idea how to cope with the situation. I was totally calm when I got in a car accident, because I'm used to having broken cars, and I would probably be calm if I lost my job. But if I couldn't get a NEW job for over a week, then I'd start to get anxious and start freaking out.

As for how I calm down when I do freak out, I just calm down. My freakouts last maybe twenty minutes, on average. Then I just set my mind to dealing with it, or ignoring it until I can deal with it.

FELIPE NO

I'm rarely stressed. I make an effort to try and stay stoic in the face of any event, good or bad.

I also try and meditate as much as possible. This allows me brain to organize itself while my body relaxes at the sametime. I recommend everyone take some quiet time for themselves AT LEAST once a week, but I try and do it at least once a day.

Originally Posted by ElectricSheep

I find that I sleep more soundly and feel more rested when I wake if I get a nice workout in the day.

Same here. Working out provides an excellent, natural release which usually leaves me much more calm and collected later in the day!

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Thanks for the feedback.

I agree that meditation is an effective way to lower stress levels. I used to do it fairly often. I suppose it's only a matter of applying some mental control/will.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I'm surprised no one has said masturbation.

I personally like to cut my nails or take showers.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I have an amazing talent for being able to totally stop thinking of work as soon as I get home. Seriously, I wish more people could do this as work/school are often one of the biggest stress points. In my mind, often it's not that important. Of course, do your work when you must and need to spend more time on it, but don't let every waking thought stay focussed on the office because it'll drive you crazy.

I do a series of things after a rough day. First I get a shower, then something like coffee, tea, or hot chocolate. Then I choose entertainment to unwind. A movie, some anime, or a game usually perfect candidates. Get to bed a lil early that night and wake up strong the next day.

How ya doing, buddy?

I'm pretty much anxious all the time for a variety of reasons, none of them plausible according to my friends. I used to get panic attacks but it's been about half a year or so since I last had one; I'm obviously just spreading my anxiety evenly rather than focusing it at one time now ;__;

Generally when I'm trying to calm down I go for a walk and listen to relaxing music, which really does wonders. Concentrating on my breathing works sometimes but it depends. Doing anything all-consuming helps a lot, which is probably why I have so much time on the in-game clock of my FF games >.<

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

The most debilitating kind of anxiety that I've had present in my life was social in nature. Below that in intensity, but not in occurrence, was anxiety brought about by future-directed thought. What has been previously described by others did work for me in short intervals, but I found the best solution to the anxiety that I felt was to inspect the chain of reasoning leading up to moments of anxiety or situations which would trigger such chains.

I was speaking idiomatically.

I rarely feel any anxiety... and if I do, it usually doesn't last long at all. Of course, I am sometimes too laid back, but oh well, that is just how I am.

If I do feel some anxiety, I usually just sleep.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

I usually just stop whatever it is that I'm doing and listen to some music. I tend to only get stressed because of schoolwork during certain moments of the semester, but I try not to let my busy schedule bother me too much.

FELIPE NO

I always feel anxious when I'm in a crowd of people. I feel like I'm being stared at and then I feel nervous and afterwards annoyed. I need something to keep my mind out of going insane.
Having some music to listen to, writing something down, taking a look at pictures, anything to keep my mind somewhere else.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

I usually first notice it when I get this feeling of NEEDING to do something and not knowing what. This is usually followed by intense worry and stress over feeling helpless. I'd solve this by pacing and trying to find someone to take me out on a drive.

Now I just get wasted out of my mind. Pretty effective.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

When I'm stressed I do several things.
~Take a long walk(depending on the weather)
~Lay on my bed or floor and stretch
~Meditate (may sound sad but it works for me)
~Listen to heavy metal really loudly and have a solo mosh pit
~Have a shower and wash my hair (makes me feel i'm washing the stress away)
Though at times none of them work and I end up screaming out the window and telling the world to go screw itself

There's nowhere I can't reach.

When I'm anxious, I tend to listen to music. Not the kind of emo music that only makes someone feel even worst. Just like the happy happy joy joy song, things of that nature, to put a smile on a person's face. Music tends to reduce my anxiety. Also, sleeping. I would just go to sleep, try to forget the day and see what tomorrow brings, if not the same mood, something to occupy myself with.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I'm a very laid back person, and rarely get anxious about anything. But in the few instances that I do feel anxious, I sleep, or if it's too early to be sleeping then I just put on some music and take my mind off it.

How ya doing, buddy?

Likewise, I'm a very laidback person. Often too chill for my own good. But on the rare occasion I ever do get stressed out, I smoke (cigs, weed, cigars). I sometimes like to go for a light jog for about 30mins or an hour during the night. Just daydream as I passively run and feel the breeze flow through my hair.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Meditation works pretty well, I have to say. I don't do it as much anymore, but I've always found it to be an amazing stress reliever. Anything that allows you to focus on what you're doing instead of what you're thinking seems to work. Personally, I put some new, previously-unheard music on my mp3 player and walk or bike somewhere with it. Usually works.

That, or I hit the bong a couple times and watch Half-Baked or a Kevin Smith movie.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

I am rarely ever anxious over anything. Good or bad. When exam times come to be, I'm so confident in myself even if I am doomed to fail that exam.

But anxiety can easily be overcome if you, of course, are willing to work to make it happen. You simply need to put in a bit of extra effort into whatever to gain some more confidence. Then ye shant harbor the anxiety demon, no longer more!

FELIPE NO

Here's a sac of good tricks/tips:

- Do something nice/happy/calming for 30 mins before you sleep
- when you wake up, don't just jump out and get on with life, to some breathing excercises for 10 minutes, refreshen yourself and then go on with your life
- do regular heavy breathing for a few minutes even when you're not anxious and when you are, do the same; the simulation sometimes helps
- excersise!
- nice showers or pamper your self a bit

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

I'll often play some ddr if its within a reasonable distance.

Jam it back in, in the dark.