Forming New Mental Habits

Do yoga. A regular yoga practice can help you calm your anxiety and reduce your body’s response to stress.  Enroll in a yoga class or try out an instruction video or book.

• For example, you could do 10 minutes of yoga in the morning or evening. If you practice the poses often, they’ll be easier to do when you feel anxious and need to calm down.

Perform progressive muscle relaxation. Starting at your toes, tense and relax each set of your muscles. After you do your toes, move up to your feet. Continue until you reach the top of your head. This should relax your entire body.

• This is a great technique for times when you can’t fall asleep.
  

  Psychological disorders

Confront changeable sources of anxiety. Sometimes anxiety stems from a feeling of being overwhelmed by a million little things you have to get done. Taken alone, each item on your to-do list may not be a big source of stress, but the compilation of a lot of small obligations can end up being an anxiety-inducing burden. Tackling issues you have the power to change one at a time can help you feel less anxious right away.

• Perform small but annoying tasks right away so they don’t start accumulating. Pay your bills and parking tickets on time, get your taxes done well in advance, register for classes in plenty of time, keep your doctor and dentist appointments, and so on.
• You may have the power to change situations that seem out of your control if you approach them from a different angle. For example, if you’re dreading a family reunion that’s coming up, put a time limit on how long you’re going to stay. Make sure your accommodations are comfortable. If taking these measures still doesn’t stop feelings of extreme anxiety, you can always skip the event. You have control over how you spend your time.
  

  Psychological disorders

Change the way you think about sources of anxiety you can’t control. Some sources of anxiety aren’t going away any time soon. Illness, financial problems, relationship issues, and other more permanent sources of anxiety aren’t easily fixable, but thinking about them differently can help you reduce the stress and fear they elicit.

• Do what you can to make the situation better. For example, you can talk with a financial counselor to help you sort out your financial issues. You can spend time helping your loved one who is ill. You can talk to your partner about getting couples counseling.
• Limit the time you spend actively thinking about your main sources of stress. You can’t change anything by obsessively worrying. Do what you can do, then spend time thinking about something else or having some fun, even if it just means taking a walk or watching an episode of your favorite show.
  

  Psychological disorders

Train your mind to calm down. Have you ever tried meditation? It’s a useful tool for relieving anxiety on the spot. With practice, it can make a marked difference in your long-term state of mind and improve your mental health.

• If you’re a beginner, pick up a guided meditation CD or join a meditation class. The leader of the meditation will teach you how to relax your mind and reach a state of calmness when your thoughts start to race.
• Mindfulness meditation is also useful. It involves focusing on the source of anxiety until you’ve thought through it and your mind is free to think about something else for the rest of the day. If you tend to wake up full of anxiety, rise and go to a quiet, peaceful place in the house. Spend 5 minutes thinking through your worries and making plans on how to deal with the issues you can change. After that, go about your day knowing you’ve already addressed what’s bothering you.

Talk about your feelings. Letting anxious feelings bottle up inside you is a recipe for anxiety attacks. It’s important to discuss your feelings with someone else. You’ll gain an outside perspective, and you might even get some good ideas for solving some of the problems you’re facing.

• Talking to a trusted loved one is a good place to start. Your partner, parent, sibling, or dear friend knows you well and may be able to provide an inside perspective on how to reduce your anxiety. On the other hand, the people close to us are often sources of anxiety themselves.
• Talk to a therapist. Therapists are trained, objective listeners who are getting paid to give you the tools to relieve your anxiety. If you feel persistent anxiety that you can’t seem to kick on your own, you should give therapy a try.
• Learn how to talk about your feelings in a healthy way as they occur. Don’t bottle things up.
  

  Psychological disorders

Stop eating and drinking items that lead to anxiety. You may be stoking the fire of your anxiety by ingesting stress-inducing foods on a regular basis. Limiting your intake of harmful foods and drinks can go a long way toward calming your mind and keeping your heart rate steady.

• Limit sugary and starchy foods. Most “comfort” food falls into the sugar or starch category, but these types of foods cause your blood sugar levels to spike and lead to greater anxiety.
• Drink less caffeine. Caffeine stimulates the nervous system, so reaching for that cup of coffee in the morning could be making you feel more anxious. Either stop drinking it altogether or limit yourself to one cup of coffee a day.
• Limit your alcohol intake. It’s tempting to reach for alcohol when you just want to free your mind from stress. However, the temporary relief alcohol provides gives way to an increased state of anxiety. Alcohol is a depressant, so it can make your mood worse, and its effect on the body – dehydration, water retention, and negative long-term health effects – are anxiety-inducing on their own.
  

  Psychological disorders

Incorporate mood-balancing foods into your diet. In addition to eating plenty of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and lean meats to keep your body healthy, these foods give your mood an extra boost:

• Acai berries, blueberries, and other foods high in antioxidants. Detoxifying your body can help reduce anxiety.
• Foods high in magnesium and potassium, natural stress reducers. Eat nuts, dark chocolate, and bananas.

Exercise regularly. Studies show that people who exercise regularly have reduced anxiety. Getting a physical workout improves your circulation and gets your mood-enhancing endorphins pumping. Rotate all of the following types of exercise:

• Cardio exercises like biking, power walking, running, or swimming.
• Weight training exercises that improve your muscle tone.
• Strengthening exercises like yoga and Pilates.