My Anti-Anxiety Tips

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Life is tricky and sometimes it just takes a few tips to get you through. Here are some anti-anxiety tips I have devised which might help you deal with life a little easier. I would love to hear if you are using my techniques and how they are working for you.

So please contact me - email: veraray@optusnet.com.au


Avoiding Exam anxiety

  • Are you a Tertiary student or perhaps an adult preparing for an important examination?
  • Do you get anxious just thinking about THAT day?
  • Does that get in the way of you preparing effectively for your exams?
As an ex-teacher of many years experience as well as a psychologist with a high success rate preparing tertiary and post-graduate students for a wide variety of examinations, I would like to help you to turn your anxiety into excitement about your ability to succeed.
Ask me for details.

Some Anxiety Management Techniques:

At times you might experience tension in your jaw or your back or a feeling of doom in the pit of your stomach, which may then start a mental search for a cause. Often there is no real cause but there are things you can do.

Here are some suggestions you can try immediately:
  1. Start a journal to see whether alcohol, tobacco, caffeine, sugar or artificial sweeteners cause or exacerbate the problem. If they do, avoid these irritants.

    stress
  2. Breathe consciously. It will slow down your stress responses. Deep
    breathing is beneficial if you do it 10-15 times a day for a minute
    each. Fill your lungs fully with air, hold for 2 seconds and breathe
    out fully.

  3. You can divert unpleasant thoughts by focusing on your breathing;
    focusing on what you can hear or smell, focusing on warmth, or cold,
    hard or soft and other sensations.

  4. Write a list of worries. Lock it away, then focus on a task eg. what to buy, listen hard to a friend, plan dinner. At night invite peaceful thoughts to focus on.

  5. Use thought-stopping and thought-replacing techniques every time, even if it is 1,000 times a day. PERSISTENCE works!

  6. You can “Worry” well but only once.
    This is how it is done:
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    1. Worry” through all the issues (think through...)
    2. Do what needs doing FOR NOW about the issue.
    3. Set a time when it will be necessary to think about it again.
    4. Write that time on a calendar or diary.
    5. If it pops up before then say, “Stop. I already worried!”. Then think of something else.
  7. Plan instead of worry.
    A good plan doesn’t need constant review. Going over and over a plan is disguised ruminating. The plan can become part of a thought-stopping statement - “Stop it. I have a plan!”
    Include the following in your plan:
    1. Identify the problem.
    2. List the problem-solving options.
    3. Pick one of the options.
    4. Write out a plan of action.
    5. Cross off the items on completion.
  8. Habitual Worriers’ brains create a feeling of doom and gloom out of habit even when there isn’t much to worry about. The brain does it by being hyper-vigilant and working really hard at it.
    Therefore, remind yourself: “it’s just my Anxious Habit trying to plug in”, then do steps 2, 3 and 4.
worry
For best results use your patience and determination. Once you have learned and successfully used these simple strategies, you will own them for life
 
I would love to hear how these steps are working for you!
Please email me: veraray@optusnet.com.au or phone: (03)9499 6901