Alleviating Stress And Anxiety Guide

Ancient Meditations

admin — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 11:07:53 +0000

I used to be very skeptical of meditation as a relaxation method until I tried it. There’s a reason it’s been practiced for over 3,000 years. Meditation was originally based in spirituality. The goal of meditation is to learn how to avoid automatic self-defeating thoughts and replace them with freeing thoughts. My anxiety disorder was a classic case of lack of self-esteem. I would begin thinking I’m really not a very good person and that I have a right to be afraid much of the time. There’s so much to worry about after all!

What learning to meditate did for me was give me a tool for analyzing my thoughts so I could stop creating my own turmoil. No one else was purposely making me anxious. I was doing it all on my own. Meditation forces you to take the time to explore your innermost thoughts and feelings, while avoiding reacting as you would if you were not in a meditative state. This disassociation between emotions and thoughts is the perfect treatment for anxiety. As I learn to enter a deeper state of calm through practice, I now find I can almost view myself from a distance. So I picture myself calm and at peace.
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I’ll Do It Myself

admin — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 23:10:25 +0000

It’s nice to be able to choose the perfect therapy for anxiety, but not everyone can afford to pay for counseling sessions and doctors. In many cases of anxiety, you can help yourself which can be very effective. But this only works if you are determined to accept responsibility for your healing. Too often people are disappointed in the results of their formal therapy sessions and blame everyone except themselves. They blame the doctor or the therapist or the people in group sessions or heredity or anything else they can find. It’s the blame game. The reality is that when you recognize you have anxiety, it means you can recognize that the quickest route to improvement is accepting responsibility.

Of course, that doesn’t mean you have to undergo therapy all alone. Even if you choose to see a licensed professional, you still have to be willing to work towards improvement. You also need to let your family and friends help you however possible. Anxiety can be very isolating which means you have a tendency to push people away. Having a good support system is important when you’re trying to overcome anxiety.

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I Really Am Obsessive and Compulsive

admin — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 22:40:17 +0000

I had a friend who cleaned her house to the point I was afraid to sit anywhere. She had all her furniture covered with clear plastic covers and would continually dust and sweep even when it didn’t need it. I finally convinced her to talk to a therapist, and she has obsessive-compulsive disorder. With this disorder, a person will have compulsions to do something over and over again. But apparently the compulsive acts are really attempts to stop anxiety.

Some people diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder only have obsessions. These are thoughts and feelings that happen over and over again. They may be really unpleasant thoughts too. This disorder often goes hand-in-hand with depression. No one really knows why this disorder exists though. There are ways to treat it which is good. This disorder can be really life disrupting because you spend so much time doing the same thing over and over again.

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Keeping My Anxiety Alive

admin — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 22:36:23 +0000

Did you know there’s something called “maintaining causes” for anxiety. In other words, you have an anxiety disorder and you keep the flames burning because of the way you think and feel. Anxiety is a normal reaction to something that causes fear or worry. When normal anxiety occurs, it’s temporary. After a short while the anxiety dissipates and you stop worrying. But some people actually prolong their anxiety by talking themselves into worrying more and longer than necessary.

One of the most common ways people increase their anxiety is by convincing themselves they need to worry about all the “what-ifs”. If you’ve ever known anyone who always thinks about the worst that can happen, you’ll recognize what I’m talking about. When you maintain your anxiety this way, the anxiety usually gets worse. It can even lead to outright panic attacks. It’s a vicious cycle too. The more you talk about all the bad things that could happen (but probably won’t), the worse your anxiety can get.

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More Than One Cause

admin — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 22:32:30 +0000

A lot of people don’t realize that there can be many causes of anxiety instead of just one. When you are a worrier, you can usually pinpoint a particular reason why you’re worrying at that moment. But anxiety can have many underlying causes meaning you have to dig deeper to understand the sources. The causes can run the whole gamut too –from physical to emotional.

When you talk about the causes of anxiety, you might be surprised at how many possibilities exist. For example, you might have a personality that lends itself to anxiety. It reminds me of a t-shirt they used to make that said, “Born to worry!” You can experience anxiety because of unrelenting stress in your life or constant negative thinking. If you have low self-esteem you can also be prone to anxiety attacks. I guess though, the bottom line is no matter what causes may be creating anxiety, you won’t feel better until you begin a therapy program.
Alleviating Stress Free Report