The One Activity That Helps Me Calm My Anxiety

Anxiety is the fear of the unknown. Anxiety can come in different forms. For some, it can even have physical symptoms: a tight chest, feet tapping, nail biting, etc. We can become obsessed with our thoughts, which leads to a feeling: unworthiness, not being good enough, I must have said something to upset someone, and overthinking our past and present decisions.

The Activity

Face your anxiety!

Now, let me explain the “simple” activity. The first thing you want to do is break down your anxiety in this format.

Thoughts

Feelings

Behavior

Outcome

Always remember, it’s nearly impossible for you to have a feeling without a thought, and if you eliminate the thought, then you can’t experience that feeling.

Here’s an example:

Thought: I think my husband is not making me his priority.

Feeling: It’s making me feel unseen and unheard.

Behavior: I tend to isolate myself from him whenever I think this way.

Outcome: I find that we miscommunicate, and I tend to get snappy.

Now, I want you to only focus on the thought:

I do want to say that by flip-flopping your thoughts, it won’t help as much. I do not recommend convincing yourself that he is making you his priority. Instead, come up with 3 times in the past when you did think your husband made you his priority. Focus on those thoughts and express how you missed when he did those 3 things.

The more you focus on your thoughts rather than feelings, you will start to realize that those feelings of anxiety become less intense.

Running away from your anxiety only delays your healing process. Our brain is programmed to believe that our thoughts could be false, and feelings are valid. If you convince yourself that your thoughts are your feelings, then your brain will automatically think it’s valid, which in return will make you more anxious.