How Do I Get Rid of my Anxiety?

It’s three in the morning. You’ve been woken up by cold sweats, a pounding heart, and a racing mind. Or, it’s three in the morning and you simply can’t fall asleep because you can’t shut off your mind. You may be plagued with thoughts of the pandemic, an upcoming medical test, or worrying if your kids are making friends at school.

When these feelings and thoughts occur, anxiety has found its way into the crevice of your mind. And when it enters, it can feel like it’s not going to leave. Anxiety can be debilitating. Let’s be honest, no one says to themselves, “I can’t wait to feel anxious!” But, what if this was the trick to being relieved of it?

What is Anxiety?

Anxiety is an emotion that is part of the human experience. All emotions serve a purpose for living. Anxiety is there to keep us safe and protected.

Once a threat had been identified in the mind, anxiety lets us know each time we may encounter that threatened to keep us on our toes and ready to flee if need be. So, once we identify something as a threat, our brains will hit the play button as soon as that threat appears, as to get us ready to prepare to take action (hence the racing thoughts).

Anxiety is Part of Us

Think back to when you were a kid and were maybe afraid of the dark. After so much time went on, you decided the dark isn’t so scary after all. And poof, anxiety is gone (except for maybe those nights when you’ve watched a scary movie).

If we tell ourselves that it’s okay if that thing we’re anxious about happens, because we know we’ll ultimately be safe, anxiety dissipates. Welcoming anxiety as part of the human experience naturally gives you a defense against it, and there won’t be such a strong aversion to it.

Get Rid of Anxiety

In order to get to a better place mentally, the first steps are building confidence in knowing you can handle feeling anxiety and also building tolerance to the feeling. This can be done in our counseling sessions to ensure you’re practicing this at a pace that’s right for you.

So the next time you find yourself feeling anxious, try giving yourself permission to have racing thoughts and feel panicky. Stop fighting the feeling, and see what happens.