Wednesday, March 30, 2016

To Reduce Anxiety, Do More of What Works

A very effective way to reduce anxiety is to do more of what works in your life. However, any type of anxiety disorder can seem to completely take over someone’s entire being, his/her very life. Anxiety can consume our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors, making us feel trapped, isolated, agitated, worried, and afraid. When living with an anxiety disorder, it can be hard to see past all of the struggles and all of the things that aren’t working in life. It’s possible to get around that, and in the process, significantly reduce anxiety. To reduce anxiety, do more of what works.

How Can You Do More of What Works Right Now?

It can be hard to see past anxiety and the related problems it can cause. However, doing just that—looking past the anxious thoughts and beliefs—is a positive action you can take to reduce anxiety.

Doing more of what works in your life can reduce anxiety. It's natural to focus on anxiety and fear, but focusing on what is already working reduces anxiety.This solution-focused idea is sometimes called the continuation concept or the continuation question: what works in your life right now that you want to continue? Then, rather than turning your attention to anxiety and wanting it gone, you can shift to nurturing what is good and right in your life.

When living with an anxiety disorder, it’s very natural to just want it gone, to rid yourself of everything in your life and start over. That, though, is akin to the cliché regarding throwing the baby out with the bathwater. When you identify what is working in your life, the proverbial baby in the bathwater, you identify what you want to do more of and continue even when anxiety is gone from your life.

The very act of shifting your thinking and actions to do more of what works goes quite far to reduce anxiety. I discuss this further and offer some ways to do this in the below video. I invite you to watch.

Let’s connect. I blog here. Find me on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Pinterest. My mental health novels, including one about severe anxiety, are here.



from Anxiety-Schmanxiety Blog http://ift.tt/1RLkfMx

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