Everyone experiences anxiety at some point or another. At times, anxiety can be protective and a sign that we need to be on high alert. Unfortunately, those with generalized anxiety disorder find themselves with anxiety and worry even when it is not beneficial to them. Continue reading this article if you are looking for ways to decrease anxiety.
Generalized anxiety disorder is characterized by:
- Worry or excess anxiety that is difficult to control
- Fatigue
- Trouble falling asleep or staying asleep
- Impaired concentration
- Feeling restless, keyed up, or on edge
- Muscle tension or tension headaches
- Irritability
For most people with generalized anxiety disorder, the worry is about regular life stressors such as their finances, safety of loved ones, health, or job security. What makes it a disorder is that the worry about those things is excessive and beyond what is typical.
When these symptoms go untreated, they can start to interfere with functioning and cause problems in the workplace. Decreased productivity, difficulty interacting appropriately with others, trouble with multitasking, and difficulty handling the unexpected are all common effects of untreated anxiety.
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Ways to Decrease Anxiety
Those with anxiety often report having one anxious thought that just snowballs into another and another. Before they know it, they’ve lost significant chunks of time worrying.
This may lead to working later than peers or taking much longer than usual to complete a task. If worry plagues you, here are a few techniques that can be used to decrease anxiety and stop your thoughts from going on this continuous loop to nowhere.
Pick an object to focus on at your desk
It can be a paperclip, ink pen, stapler or whatever is handy. When you feel the worry thoughts starting focus on that object for a minute. Use your senses to pay close attention to the color, the texture. Think about its use.
This can distract you from the worry thoughts long enough to get back on track. The benefit of this is you can do this at work without the appearance of goofing off on the job since it doesn’t require you to close your eyes
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Deep breathing
Breathe in and out slowly. Inhale for a count of five, hold for a count of five, and exhale for a count of seven. Repeat four to five times. As you do this, pay attention to where the air is going as it enters and exits your body.
Focusing on your breathing for this short time can refocus you to the tasks in front of you.
Mindfulness of environment
This is great if you have the ability to find a place where you are out of the sight of others. Close your eyes and then just listen to the sounds around you and what is happening outside of your body. What do you hear? What do you smell? Change your focus ever so often to a different focus until you notice your anxiety decreasing.
This is one of my favorite mindfulness exercises because it doesn’t require a quiet environment. It only requires a place where you can sit still and be uninterrupted.
Counting
We have all heard of people counting sheep to help them fall asleep. Well, that’s because when focused on counting, you aren’t thinking of all the other things that could be keeping you up worrying.
This can be an equally effective exercise during the day as well to help with warry thoughts and decrease anxiety.
Ultimately, if you are dealing with anxiety, talking to your primary care physician or seeing a therapist or psychiatrist may be necessary to give you the relief you need to feel comfortable in your own skin again. In the meantime, try out these exercises to decrease anxiety.
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