I have been practicing Life Coaching for the last 5 years and worked with various clients from different countries and backgrounds. What I find common and extremely wide spread among all different coachees is the ongoing issue of anxiety. We all talk about stress and anxiety management and give a lot of advices on how to deal with them. However, I find that many of these techniques, no matter how wonderful they are, are not going to help if there is only one thing is missing…. – the reason “why”, i.e., the higher purpose and reason for us to practice anxiety management.
Managing anxiety for the sake of reducing anxiety is not sustainable and does not give a profound effect. We all know that we need to improve our sleep hygiene, we all want to stay mindful, do one task at a time, exercise and spend more time outdoors, reduce our screen time and fix work-life balance. There are multiple tools out there to manage anxiety and stress, however the fact of “knowing” about them and practising them just to see the immediate result will not work. We need to dig deeper and realize that ongoing high levels of stress and anxious state of mind are destructive for our mental and physical wellbeing. The world has changed and its pace is too fast. The only antidote I see that might truly impact the anxiety management is the understanding of “Why” and “What for”. By being anxious we are self-sabotaging our self and making our life harder.
The opposite of this is self-love and self-preservation, which are possible to be achieved and self-realized through deeper understanding of your current life situation and your own self. I believe in a meaningful and sustainable change that can be achieved through consistent, purposeful and conscious practice. By changing our behavioral patterns, we will be able to change our mindset and align both of them in the future.
I could be quite anxious sometimes and I can get easily overwhelmed if I am facing increased workload with multiple tasks. If I don’t stay mindful, I can spiral into anxiety attack sometimes. I can share, from my personal experience, that only through taking proper care of myself and staying true to my goals and practising self-love I managed to reduce anxiety levels. Such simple things as making a simple and clear “To Do” list and writing down your tasks will naturally calm down the mind and help you to focus. “Less is more” – is another slogan that makes life easier and more productive.
Set the priorities in terms of urgency and significance and stick to them. Any progress is better than no progress. Single tasking and being aware of my self-talk, breathing and body sensations help me stay mindful and present. Although, all of this will work if we only prioritizing ourselves and our well-being. Nothing can happen from the place of low self-wroth. We have to accept and love ourselves unconditionally, recognize our self-worth and treat ourselves with compassion. The initial stage is to believe in yourself and in your inherent value, which will mitigate the feeling if inadequacy and self-doubt, that often contribute to anxiety.
Here are few simple tips to reflect on to understand better how to mitigate anxiety with:
- Positive self-worth & positive self-talk
- Reduced self-criticism & its change for constructive feedback
- Emotional resilience: the more we cultivate self-love and self-confidence – the more trust we have in ourselves to deal with complex issues
- Embracing imperfection and allowing yourself to make mistakes and to fail as a natural process of growth and development
- Prioritizing your wellbeing & setting boundaries to improve your sleep, exercise regime, meals planning, relaxation times and others
How is your relationship with your self-love? You can get more insights on self-love in my featured article with Task Human Platform https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/e/2PACX-1vTRa98nPcV54xwfTv3CVheIYvsvfZsl7KPJmt40YkTXefcQTCqJPUQVqXGCzyO1o888leKOKwCp7Lup/pub?start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000&slide=id.g275d0ef7c4b_0_1422
