My 5 Easy Steps To Reduce Anxiety
Step 1 – developing awareness of your emotional landscape
This first step is crucial in starting to work in a self-empowered way to support ourselves and combat our negativity!
It is vital that we are aware of how we are thinking and feeling at any given moment.
I have witnessed how many women seem to be disconnected from their emotional landscape, making it incredibly difficult for them to make any long-lasting changes.
In order to connect more to our thoughts and feelings, it is good practice to regularly ask ourselves the question: ‘How am I feeling at this moment?’
The more often you do this, the more reconnected you will become to your emotional landscape, and the easier it will be for you to make those changes within yourself.
Step 2 – Breaking the cycle of negativity
The average person has thousands of thoughts, negative and positive, every single day! From my own experience, I know that I have recurring thoughts that are negative and if I am not aware of them immediately, a feeling will attach itself to that thought. Before long, a downward spiral of negativity has formed, and this can be a very hard cycle to break because it feels so real.
When I recognise that I am caught up in this negativity, I use techniques to break out of the cycle.
Technique for breaking a negative thought cycle:
Still yourself, close your eyes and focus only on your breath. Practise breathing in and out through your nose with gradual, deep breaths.
Set the intent to let go of any unwanted negative thoughts and feelings, because they no longer serve you.
On each out breath, imagine you are breathing away negativity, and on the in breath, that you are breathing in relaxation.
If your thoughts wander, gently bring your focus back to the breath.
Practice this for a few minutes each time you are struggling.
Step 3 – Giving our selves permission to feel the feelings
In order to truly let go and release feelings that no longer serve us, we have to feel them!
Separating the thought from the feeling and simply allowing our self to feel a negative feeling safely, without attaching a thought, is a very empowering and liberating experience.
I know that this can feel uncomfortable for us, but it is necessary! If we never allow ourselves to feel negative feelings, then we are simply suppressing them. These feelings will persistently resurface until they are acknowledged and released. They tend to get louder too, if ignored!
Step 4 - Intuition
Everyone has Intuition. They may refer to it differently, with terms such as: ‘the little voice inside my head’; ‘my spider vibes’; ‘my gut feelings’; ‘my instinct tells me…’; etc. It is our Intuition – meaning our ‘inner teacher’.
Although we all have Intuition, many of us choose not to listen to it. If we hear it, we don’t always place our faith in it. Yet, our Intuition is such a powerful tool that allows us to make decisions that are perfect for us in the moment. It helps build our inner-knowing and self-confidence!
In order to develop our Intuition, we have to pay attention to it.
Practice stilling yourself, sitting quietly and asking for guidance and then paying attention to feelings, thoughts, signs, things people say to you, etc. The information may not come immediately, but it will come!
Don’t forget to act upon it!
Step 5 – Gratitude
Practice daily gratitude. This is an important part of self-growth and self-development. Be grateful and acknowledge the intuitive guidance and the shifts that you are making within yourself. Keep a record of all the changes that you have created within yourself. This will help keep the momentum for change going.