Identify and understand your anxiety and worry-related habit loops, including other related unhelpful habits (e.g., overeating, excessive social media), using a simple ’trigger, behavior, result’ framework. This helps to see how anxiety perpetuates itself.
When you find yourself worrying, bring awareness to the present moment by asking: ‘What am I getting from this right now?’ (e.g., increased anxiety) and ‘Is this actually solving the problem?’ This helps your brain recognize the true unrewarding nature of worry.
Replace unrewarding anxiety and worry with curiosity, asking yourself what feels better: being anxious or being curious about that anxiety. Curiosity is an intrinsic, intrinsically rewarding ‘bigger, better offer’ that helps you step out of old habit loops.
Instead of resisting, trying to fix, or avoiding anxiety, practice simply being with and accepting the feelings as body sensations. This stops feeding the anxiety and allows for a shift in your relationship to it, as ‘what we resist persists’.
Engage in ‘short moments many times’ of informal mindfulness throughout your day, such as mindfully eating, smoking, or simply noting anxiety sensations or taking a mindful breath. This helps establish the habit of awareness in context before formal meditation.
Recognize that physical feelings of fear can be useful signals, but obsessive thinking (worry) triggered by fear is unhelpful and makes things worse by hindering clear thought and planning. Watch out for the latter.
Focus on ‘interest curiosity’ – the joy of discovery and exploring the journey – rather than ‘deprivation curiosity,’ which is about seeking to fill an information gap. Interest curiosity feels more open and rewarding.
When anxious, practice self-compassion by reminding yourself, ‘Oh, that’s how my brain works,’ recognizing that your brain is trying to protect you, even if it’s overreacting to non-threats. This helps to give your brain a break and break the cycle of self-judgment.
When dealing with unhelpful patterns, devote your energy to ‘what is happening right now’ rather than dwelling on ‘why’ it’s happening. Understanding the present pattern is more effective for changing habits than focusing on past origins.
When stepping out of your comfort zone into new, uncomfortable territory, recognize that this discomfort is a natural brain survival mechanism. Approach it with curiosity rather than panic to avoid reverting to old, unhelpful patterns.
To overcome unhelpful habits (e.g., drinking), practice ‘playing the tape forward’ by reflecting on past negative outcomes of the habit and comparing them to the present positive experience of not engaging in it. This helps update the brain’s reward value.
Utilize the GAD-7 (Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7) questionnaire, a common clinical tool, to gauge the severity of your anxiety, with scores indicating minimal (<5), mild (5-10), moderate (10-15), or severe (>15) anxiety.
To determine if your anxiety is problematic, ask yourself if it is causing a disturbance in your life or disrupting your ability to function fully, rather than solely relying on symptom checklists.
When feeling worried, consciously take deep breaths, as this simple practice is phenomenally helpful in managing the physical sensations of worry and anxiety.
Refrain from employing unhelpful compensatory mechanisms like excessive drinking, overeating, or social media addiction for news, as these habits solidify anxiety rather than addressing its root cause.
Cultivate feelings of love and kindness, as they share the same core quality of ‘opening up’ and expansion as curiosity, helping you see the unrewarding nature of contraction and fostering connection.