Gradually approach feared situations in a regulated way, staying with the discomfort long enough for your brain to learn that nothing bad will happen. This habituates your brain and teaches you that you can handle even the worst-case scenario.
When you feel bad or anxious, pause and ask yourself, “What am I saying to myself right now?” Then, act as a detective: question your thoughts, ask for data, and determine if they are facts or just filtered through anxiety.
Pause to identify your Thoughts, Emotions, and Behaviors in a moment of anxiety. Linking these elements helps you understand what’s happening in your brain, slowing down the limbic hijack and equipping you to add skills to break the spinning cycle.
Practice meditation regularly to systematically engineer collisions with your inner voice, building the muscle of self-awareness. This allows your brain to operate at a slower speed, creating a fertile ground to challenge anxious thoughts and engage with the world more calmly.
Actively identify what you are avoiding due to anxiety and choose to approach it, slowly and steadily. Avoiding only teaches your brain that the only way to tolerate anxiety is by escaping, preventing you from testing your hypotheses about feared outcomes.
When you notice physical symptoms like a pounding heart, observe them without adding a negative narrative. Recognize that these sensations can accompany excitement or exercise, not just threat, allowing you to change your relationship with anxiety and prevent it from escalating.
When someone around you is anxious, prioritize getting your own anxiety in check first. You cannot effectively help others if your own emotional brain is hijacked; instead, regulate yourself to avoid feeding their anxiety spiral.
When someone shares their anxiety, resist the urge to immediately fix or solve their problem, as this can be a subtle form of avoiding your own discomfort. Instead, listen, validate their feelings, and ask what would be helpful to them in that moment.
Focus on doing one thing at a time, as research indicates that this practice can decrease anxiety. Multitasking often leads to a frenzied state because our brains are not equipped to handle many things simultaneously.
Create moments of curiosity by setting a daily reminder, such as a phone alarm, to pause and ask yourself, “What was I thinking about right now?” This simple act helps activate your prefrontal cortex and build awareness of your thought patterns.
Write down your thoughts, ideally with pen and paper, to slow down your brain’s processing. This physical act makes it impossible to write as fast as cognitive distortions occur, inherently engaging your prefrontal cortex and aiding self-reflection.
In situations of high uncertainty where worst-case scenarios are plausible (e.g., medical diagnoses), face reality without necessarily liking it. Focus on what you can control and use reassuring self-talk, such as “We’re doing everything we can,” to minimize catastrophic thinking.
If anxiety significantly interferes with your life, consider seeking treatment from a mental health professional. While self-help skills are valuable, persistent or severe impairment indicates a need for expert guidance.
When caught in anticipatory anxiety about uncertain high-stakes outcomes, activate your thinking brain by describing your immediate surroundings to yourself. This helps you stay present and prevents your mind from feeding worst-case scenario thoughts.
Join the free 10-day Taming Anxiety Challenge on the 10% Happier app, starting June 21st, to integrate clinical insights and meditation expertise into your daily life. This challenge provides videos and guided meditations to help you practice anxiety management skills.
Visit drluana.com for more information, including a free “Mental Health for All” course available in multiple languages, and consider reading her book “Almost Anxious” for skills based on cognitive behavioral therapy.