How to Practice Mindfulness When You Have Anxiety

Anxiety can have a deleterious effect on people’s lives. It is estimated that almost four hundred million people in the world struggle with recognized anxiety issues. The bright side is that because anxiety affects so many, many resources have been devoted to combating it. There is anxiety medication with prescription and anxiety medication without prescription available, as well as therapy and self-care techniques.

Mindfulness is a technique that is used to offset the feelings that anxiety arouses. It is the sustained effort to achieve a mental state in which the focus is on the moment, while also calmly acknowledging your feelings, thoughts and bodily sensations. The beautiful thing about mindfulness is that it is a dynamic exercise that can be achieved in any number of scenarios. The goal is to achieve a sense of peace while accepting the things that are happening in and around you.

1. Set an Intention

A benefit of mindfulness is the clarity that it can help to realize. Sometimes anxiety comes from being overwhelmed, which can cause a kind of intractability. Deliberately considering one aspect of your life and channeling your energy and focus into deciding on how to move forward can be liberating. It represents your will to enact a change and your first step toward achieving it. Whether it’s about losing weight or spending more time with your dogs or getting your degree, setting an intention can help clear your head and set you moving forward with calm.

2. Go for a Walk

You might think that mindfulness has to involve sitting with your body in a still and quiet state. Mindfulness can be achieved even if your body is in motion, as long as your focus remains with your body. Going for a walk, for instance, is a technique for how to reduce irritability. Part of the reason that it works is that if you are focused on how your body feels and calmly considering your feelings, it’s not easy to retain an aggressive attitude.

3. Listen to a Guided Body Scan

Body scans can come in all sorts of durations. Guided body scans can last for three minutes or they can last for an hour. You can find lots on Youtube or find a mindfulness app that features guided body scans. As positive and helpful as anxiety medication reviews might be, the body scan is another option that can be put into play at any time at the exact moment you need it.

If you are feeling acute anxiety, you can slip into another room and use your phone to access a three, five or fifteen-minute guided body scan. It recommends that you sit in a comfortable position and remain still while listening to a voice that encourages you to focus on your breathing and on how different parts of your body feel. When other thoughts enter your head, the voice encourages you to let them slip away like so many balloons or bubbles.  You can also find these mindfulness tips can help improve memory as well.

Anxiety can be overwhelming but employing mindfulness techniques can help you feel better.  Check out a health and wellness website if you’d like to learn more about anxiety and the methods that people employ to fight it.