We all experience feelings of anxiousness, but what’s important is to understand what you are feeling and find ways how you can overcome anxiety.
Anxiety is a normal emotion, but sometimes it can get overwhelming and affect your daily life. Today, I’d like to share a few tips with you that I wish I had known before suffering from postpartum anxiety and OCD. The problem is that we are often taught to avoid our anxiety and fear it like the monster underneath our beds. But it’s not like that.
There are different ways that you may be able to overcome anxiety to enjoy better emotional wellness. The following are some strategies you should try to help overcome it.
1. Anticipate anxiety.
Someone once told me, “Don’t avoid your anxiety; anticipate it.” Let me explain this better through an example – If you have social anxiety and going into a grocery store is anxiety-provoking for you, then the trick is to tell yourself, “I bet you I’m going to feel a little anxious”, “I know that those feelings are coming.”
By calling yourself out on the anxious feelings, you anticipate them even before the event takes place. I’ve mentioned before that the most fertile ground for anxiety is darkness, so when you anticipate anxiety, it sheds light on it.
When you avoid these feelings of anxiety or pretend that they’re not there, it means that it’s going to be even worse. So, the next time you get a negative thought, take a moment and say, “Yes, I knew my brain was going to do that.” An even better exercise is to tell yourself, “I’ve been here before, and I know I’m going to feel this,” even before you enter into an anxiety triggering situation. Since you know you will feel anxious and start anticipating it, it doesn’t feel that bad.
