Free Yourself From Anxiety

As readers of my blog or eBooks will know, I don't actually believe that totally freeing yourself from anxiety is desirable. My recommended approach tends to be more on the lines of managing your anxiety in a sensible way and taking off some of the pressure that you may experience if you feel that you must get rid of anxiety.

However, the following technique can provide a useful way of keeping your anxiety in perspective and preventing yourself from becoming enthralled to it. The aim is to take a step outside of your anxiety so that instead of feeling trapped by it you are liberated to gain some control of your life. Here is what to do:

When you find yourself feeling anxious or stressed, simply observe what your are experiencing, the thoughts you are having and the behaviours you are exhibiting and describe these elements to yourself in the third person (i.e. Using your first name or ‘he’ or ‘she’ rather than ‘I’).

For example, if feeling panicky about doing a presentation I could observe myself and say to myself in an observational way:

‘David is imagining that he is going to stumble over his words in making a presentation and that people will think badly of him. His palms are getting sweaty and he is experiencing a pain in his stomach. He is talking to the people around him but his heart is beating fast. He is worrying about what will happen.’

When you are describing yourself in this way, the intention is simply to describe accurately what is happening, not to change it or to judge it or to comment on whether it is good or bad. You are trying to be an observer of yourself and by so doing to distance yourself from your anxious responses which can help you to feel a little calmer and to obtain a more objective picture of what is happening.

The above technique & others are described more fully in: AWAKE from Anxiety - A 5 Step Program