Three Easy-to-Use Coping Strategies to Reduce Anxiety, Now.
Written by Irene Eastland, LCMHC
Three Easy-to-Use Coping Strategies to Reduce Anxiety, Now
If you’re feeling anxious right now, you should know you’re not alone - at least 19 percent of Americans experience anxiety on a daily basis. While it’s not uncommon to experience anxiety, there seems to be an endless stream of ways to manage anxiety through means of medication to hypnosis. But here at Life in Bloom Counseling, we like to keep it simple and go back to basic, easy-to-use strategies that are time-tested and proven to reduce anxiety.
Coping strategies are basic but important tools to have in your pocket to use when you notice intrusive thoughts, or symptoms of anxiety such as sweaty hands, shakiness, or feeling as if things seem unreal in the moment. Coping strategies can also be used whenever you want to practice relaxation or changing your mood in general.
As of right now, maybe you’ve been accidentally practicing overthinking, or allowing intrusive thoughts to take you down the rabbit hole of “what if’s?” When you begin to practice coping skills regularly, and use them as often as you think of them, your brain will start to shift from overthinking to positive affirmations, and from intrusive thoughts to gratitude. But this shift doesn’t happen overnight, it’s crucial to practice coping skills and become familiar with them to make them more effective.
For now, use these three coping skills to reduce your current anxiety. After you’ve tried all three, make a plan to use them in your everyday life and build up your ability to access a coping skill when anxiety tries to strike.
Dance Party
This may seem silly at first, it may even feel really strange to do if you’ve never tried something like it before. But having a “dance party” for yourself, literally means what it says. It means to dance like you mean it, like you would at a party where the lights are off and you know no one is watching.
Here’s how to practice this skill. When you’re starting to feel anxious or stressed, or you’re already anxious and worrying about something, turn on your favorite song that has an upbeat tempo; think “Shake it Off” by Taylor Swift. This is by no means an endorsement for her music, it serves as our example of what kind of upbeat tempo you need for this skill. Once you have your song on, let your limbs go loose, and start to dance. If you’re sitting, stand up and start shaking it. If you’re already standing, perfect, let loose and dance like you really mean it. Do your fun and wild dancing for at least 30 seconds.
This sudden burst of movement will bring your dopamine levels up, meaning your happy chemicals in your brain, and it allows cortisol (or the stress control hormone) to drop. By doing this, you allow your body and brain to relax and change the mood for your whole day. Adding in random dancing into your day gives your brain the boost it needs to get away from the anxiety, intrusive thinking, or whatever else might be causing symptoms of anxiety to get in your way.
Once your dance party is done, feel free to do it again. Some sources indicate that dancing regularly has a positive effect on mental health and well-being. This form of movement allows your brain to work in ways you may not normally use it, and allows your body the ability to release tension. If you’re more into writing, or using your mind in another way, don’t worry - we have two other skills we will get right into.
Gratitude Journaling
Now that your dance party is over, here’s another skill you can use any time of day. Gratitude journaling can be done anywhere, at any time. While “journaling” is in the title, and writing on paper can be a preferable method of expression - you can write your gratitude on the notes in your phone, post them as tweets on the X platform, create Instagram posts about what you’re grateful for, or post Tiktok’s about what you’re thankful for. Regardless of format, the idea is to talk about what you’re grateful for.
To prevent overthinking this coping strategy, let’s talk about some simple things you could be grateful for today. One, being able to read this blog. Two, having access to the internet. Three, being awake and alive on this beautiful day. There are 100 things to be grateful for at any given moment. But sometimes anxiety can make the best things invisible, meaning we have to go looking harder for what we are grateful for.
Even though anxiety can overshadow many great things in our lives, we can get really good at outsmarting anxiety by practicing gratitude before anxiety strikes. You can practice gratitude when you wake up by being thankful for the start of a new day, having a clean slate for the day, and having been able to sleep (even if only for a few hours). You can practice gratitude on your lunch break or midday by being thankful for your job, your home/apartment/living place, and being thankful for the breath in your lungs. You can practice gratitude during your evening shower by being thankful for soap, a body to wash, and being able to practice gratitude.
The more you practice gratitude, the more you will find yourself settling into the grateful feelings and less into anxiety. After a few weeks of practice, you may start to notice the focus in your mindset shifting, and anxiety is less and less able to access you on a daily basis. Use gratitude today, to start practicing your ability to access grateful feelings and attitudes. If you’re ready to use your mind in another way, let’s practice affirmations.
Positive Affirmations
Before jumping in, let’s briefly review what a positive affirmation is versus is not. A positive affirmation is a statement you make about yourself, that is well, positive. It is an “I am” statement. It is affirming something that’s already true, or something you are working on. Some examples of this are; “I am helpful”, and “I am working on being more helpful to others”. Positive affirmations are not… “I am not good at this”, “I am not enough”. These are not positive statements or helpful. Instead think, “I am working on improving”, “I am enough”. In a future blog we will break down your inherent worth and the reality of the statement “I am enough”. It may be hard to believe at this moment, but it’s true - stick around for that blog post. But let’s keep going so you can use positive affirmations today.
I can hear you now, “really? Positive woo woo stuff? That doesn’t work for me!” It’s okay, I get it, I’ve seen so many people say “well, just think positively” or “positive thinking is the way to go”. But I want to challenge the ideas you have about positive affirmations, and talk about how to use them in a way that reduces stress without it feeling “fake” or “woo woo”.
Positive affirmations don’t have to be woo woo or fake feeling. Here’s one example, “I am safe”, of course, if you’re not safe (please call 911 or 988 the crisis line). But most of us don’t realize that our bodies and minds don’t feel safe, which is why cortisol spikes causing stress and anxiety. Saying “I am safe” on a regular basis can help remind your body and mind that you are safe, and you don’t have to be in a heightened state of awareness. You can take a deep breath and rest in the fact that you are safe.
Another positive affirmation is, “I am learning and growing everyday”. Not only is this true, it’s a statement that allows you to give yourself grace when you do feel like you haven’t done well that day, or when you feel you aren’t growing as a person. The reality is, you are constantly learning and growing as a person, even if you haven’t sat down to think about what you’re learning - you have to learn to keep moving forward in life.
Finally, a positive affirmation you can use is “I am in control of my body, my emotions, and my thoughts”. While this may not feel like reality in this moment, you are able to say this to yourself because it’s a fact - you are in control, but often anxiety tries to make you feel like you are not in control. Anxiety tries to tell you that you aren’t in control, because then it makes you feel unsafe, and it makes you feel like you’re not learning or growing - but you are in control.
By practicing positive affirmations, you aren’t lying to yourself, or saying something that is unbelievable. You are giving way to realistic thinking, and a positive attitude that comes from thinking these positive things on purpose. These thoughts can help buffer you from the intrusive unhelpful thoughts that cause anxiety to worsen. Use these positive affirmations daily to help increase a sense of safety, and lessen anxiety’s grip on your life.
Here are some more examples of positive affirmations you can use daily:
I am safe
I am loved
I am cared for
I am in control of my body, my thoughts, and my emotions
I am in control of my actions
I am capable of anything I set my mind to
I am practicing thoughtfulness everyday
I am learning and growing everyday
I am becoming who I want to be
I am able to practice gratitude
Conclusion
Now that you’ve learned three new skills, how will you incorporate them in your daily life? Which ones seem the most beneficial to you? Are you feeling more relaxed now that you’ve made it to the end of this blog? What was most helpful about this blog for you? We hope you're still having a dance party!
You can decide your next thought by honing in on something you’re grateful for, you can decide your next move by turning on a song and dancing like no one is watching, and you can use positive affirmations to remind yourself of the truth rather than letting intrusive thoughts win. At the end of the day, practicing coping skills regularly will help you feel less anxious and more in control of your life.
And always remember, your life is always in bloom—you can choose what kind of growth you want to nurture.
Sources
https://www.nami.org/about-mental-illness/mental-health-conditions/anxiety-disorders/#:~:text=Over%2040%20million%20adults%20in,%25)%20have%20an%20anxiety%20disorder
https://www.mhainde.org/the-benefits-of-dance-on-mental-wellbeing/
https://www.lifeinbloomcounseling.care/blog/back-to-basics-what-is-mental-health
https://wanderings.com/blogs/wanderers-way/what-are-the-benefits-of-gratitude-journaling
https://www.webmd.com/balance/what-to-know-positive-affirmations