Symptoms of Anxiety and Stress
If you are experiencing symptoms of anxiety (uncontrollable excessive worry, lack of concentration, tiredness, irritability, somatic issues, sleep disturbance, and/or antsy reactions), and you feel guilt/shame from such symptoms, this blog is for you.
We oftentimes dwell on what is wrong, versus celebrating what is right. You might ask, what is “right” about being anxious? You are justified in asking this! Your self-preserving instincts towards wellness is kicking in here. Being constantly disturbed by worry, is not healthy. However, trying to rid of anxiety, and not being able to, can lead to shame/guilt which can thereby cause more anxiety. In this downward spiral, what is “right”?
Photo via Unsplash
Yes, your instincts kicked in again. There is nothing settling about this! Let’s examine the facts, to determine how this daunting situation, can work to our benefit. The fact is that you have tried to rid of anxiety on your own, and it hasn’t worked. You find yourself worrying about your worrying, and you are feeling helpless and hopeless. Let’s add in another fact that has been omitted from our attention: anxiety can be helpful in determining what areas in our life we need to adjust in order to find wellness. Anxiety indicates that you still have the ability to empathize and be in touch with your own emotions, which can be key to understanding what needs to be done in order to live a more balanced life. Anxiety can be used to understand ourselves more and can thus help us learn how to meet our needs. This is what is “right” in this situation.
Mindfulness for Combatting Anxiety
Mindfulness activities can enable you to understand the themes of your anxiety, which can lead to understanding how it may positively serve you while it’s here.
If your anxiety is severe, I would recommend practicing loving kindness, mantra, and positive affirmation meditations, for 5 minutes to contain your negative emotions so that they do not become overwhelming. Below are some great examples of affirmations to guided meditations you can try:
Examples of Affirmation Meditations
Examples of Meditation for Overthinking
You may also want to try practicing open monitoring meditation (OMM). In open monitoring meditation, you sit with your anxiety and simply examine your thoughts. You are not judging, labeling, or censoring your thoughts. In OM meditation, you watch your thoughts as they flow in and out of your mind while focusing on your breath. You do not control what comes in, just pay attention to each thought as they arise. If you find yourself drifting from one subject to the next, bring your attention to those thoughts.
The purpose of OMM is to see what worrisome thoughts are the most intrusive, and how they come about. After learning about the images, worries, and thoughts that arise in your mind, write them down.
What do these findings tell you? They may suggest that you need a better balance between your work, leisure, relationships, and personal growth. They may indicate that you need to see your mother more often to fulfill a relationship need, or that you need to go outside more because nature is calming to you. You may realize that your actions are not aligning with your goals as much as you would like them to.
SMART goals: A Plan For Anxiety
Infographic via Woodburn Press
After determining what the anxiety is suggesting, you can determine a plan of action. Implementing the SMART goals with other action plans, can get you closer to fulfilling your needs, and may reduce your anxiety.
Though you can certainly try these meditative techniques and try making SMART goals at home, I recommend that you work with a mindfulness trained therapist while doing so. We don’t want the findings of your OMM’s to be interpreted in a harmful way due to worry. This could lead to unproductive SMART goal’s, stagnation, and/or hinderance.
A good place to start on your own, would be to first and foremost, remember that anxiety can enable you to deeply understand your emotions, thoughts, and feelings. This deep understanding of self, will help you determine how your actions and needs can be merged for a healthier lifestyle. Remember that anxiety may lead to the type of self-discovery and change that you need in your life! This is an example of one way that you can celebrate the positive aspect of life, through a distressful situation.
Meet the Author: Dushyanthi Niyangoda
Dushyanthi is a former graduate student intern who strives to empower adults with their energy source, values, creativity, and their belief systems. Her strength is to help others align their core values with the healing power that comes from Trauma. Through CBT, talk therapy, BT, Adlerian, person centered, Freudian, Narrative and feminist-based therapy, she helps guide clients towards their visions of wellness.
She specializes in meditative practices and creative outlets for stress management. She helps people understand the source of their suffering in order to reduce their anxiety, depression, transitional worries, and/or distress. Her immediate goal is to help others develop deep self-awareness so that they can manifest their dreams and act in accordance to their purpose. Her dream to create a relaxing and holistic environment, where people can make loving movements into their authentic self, as they unpack their trauma and difficulties.
When she is not doing school work or seeing clients, she works with DJ’s and MC’s as a brand ambassador/professional dancer. She also spends time cooking and finding exciting pescatarian free recipes. She really enjoys watching Sci-Fi related shows/movies like sense 8, X-Men, and travelers, synchronicity, and Arrival.
Dushyanthi is no longer accepting clients. However, if you are interested in working with a graduate student intern, please click the link below: