Racing heartbeat, sweaty palms, and a barrage of scary, negative thoughts. That is what many people that suffer from anxiety can be affected with on a daily basis. Of course, it’s not fun, and as sufferers we often do everything in our power to try and prevent ourselves from feeling these feelings. However, trying to abolish anxiety in this way is not only exhausting, but it’s also ineffective. In fact, it can actually make things worse because we damn up our emotions and give them more power to overwhelm us later. Instead, it can be more useful to come up with ways of accepting and living with this experience, letting it fade away on its own.

Thoughts are just thoughts

One of the most important aspects of accepting and living with anxiety without letting it control us is to realise that the thoughts, no matter how scary are just thoughts.

That is they don’t have any objective truth to them. After all, you can think the thought ‘I am a table’ as many time as you like but it gets you no closer to actually becoming a table. The same is true when your brain is telling you, you are having a heart attack when really it’s just a panic attack.

By practising non-attachment to thoughts like this, you can actually deal with your anxiety is a much more adaptive way. The reason being that it allows the anxiety to come into your mind, but also leave without you getting hung up on it. Something that can often create more problems and is a breeding ground for more serious anxiety disorders.

Self-care to calm

Another way that you can develop a better relationship with your anxiety and accept it as a part of your life is to prioritise some ways in which you can calm yourself. To do this, you may choose to meditate or take a warm bath. You may pick an alternative or complementary therapy such as using things like this Harmony OG Kush e-liquid, getting acupuncture, or a relaxing massage. You may even choose something simple like listening to your favourite music.

The method that you pick is not really too important. Just ensure that you have something that can bring your anxiety down when you are in the grip of panic that means you are actively fighting it.

Valued goals

Lastly, when choosing to live your life with anxiety instead of attempting to abolish it, it can really help to have some valued goal to work to.

These may be things such as being a good friend or family member, or a hobby that you want to participate in outside of the home, but your anxiety is stopping you.

The idea behind this being that if the pull to go through the negative experience is strong enough it can help you get through the temporary uncomfort. Combine this with methods for accepting and not reacting to the anxiety, it can make it anxiety much more easy to deal with.