Jim McFarland- Anxiety Counselor

2 words always signal that a worry is about to come: "What if...." But If you're a worrier, 'What if..." actually means "Pretend that ______ is actually happening right now!" So when we worry, we're giving the brain a "live" movie of some catastrophic, awful, absolute worst thing, that has NEVER happened...and then the brain responds, as it has perfectly evolved to, with feeling panicky, anxious, tense and on-edge. No Wonder worriers always feel irritable, tense and anxious! Next post, I'll give you a cool little trick to help you get off the "struggle bus" with those continuous "What if's" ...but for now, just practice noticing when your thoughts begin with "What if..." And then start to name it, so we can tame it- "Yup, that's just a worry..."

Here's another really cool little mindfulness coping skill- takes just 3 minutes! This is a great way to break up the habitual momentum of busyness and so-called "multi-tasking" ! Anyone with anxiety or heavy stress needs to be doing this kind of exercise 3 or more times per day! https://www.mindful.org/the-three-minute-breathing-space-p/

Mindfulness is a proven stress and anxiety-buster! 8 weeks of mindfulness practice can literally change the entire structure of your brain- Here's a quick 5-minute mindfulness break for yourself (and if you're too busy for 5 minutes, you need the 30 minute one!) https://www.headspace.com/meditation/5-minute-meditation

In order for anxiety to "win", it's got to get you to: 1.) Avoid and try to push away ANY feelings of distress or any uncomfortable feelings, and 2.) Try to control ANY feeling of uncertainty with more worry/analyzing, research, etc. So, to start winning over anxiety, we have to do the OPPOSITE of these. That means we start to go where we feel even MORE distress, and start to accept and even WANT more uncertainty and vow to STOP the worry habit! This is how we start to win and score points over our anxiety! And ultimately, this is how we make panic, anxiety and worry go away...we get STRONGER! https://anxietycanada.com/artic/intolerance-of-uncertainty/

Psychweb says we have to feel our fear, in order to learn to overcome it. This new study say we have to get our anxiety 'going' in order to rewire it and feel better...What do you think? Do you have to face what you fear to feel better, or is it better to try to calm down your fears when you feel overwhelmed? https://www.psycom.net/facing-your-fear