Nothing is worse than when anxiety gets the best of you. To halt the constant inner voices and calm your mind, try these 11 tricks.
Is there anything worse than feeling anxious? Everyone is prone to worry and anxiety. If you find the noise inside your head overwhelms and interferes with your ability to find peace in your daily life, that is more than just a little worry. A nervous wreck by nature, I know that finding a way to calm your mind isn’t always easy for everyone.
There are going to be people in your life who say things like “don’t worry” or “there’s nothing you can do about it.” As if those are the type of magical phrases make it all go away. But, the secret that we worriers share is that continual worrying and anxiety can’t be eradicated with the wave of the wand.
How to calm your mind – 11 secrets that work like a charm
The good news is that there is a way to calm your mind. If you practice these behaviors enough, you will wake up one day and realize the only person in your head is a rational you.
1. Talk it through
Sometimes, the only way to get the inside voices outside of your brain is to talk them through with someone. Find one person in your life whom you confide. Often, we hold things in because we know how crazy our thinking process is.
But, that just leaves it twirling around and around your brain never going anywhere. Like the dust kicked up, if you don’t clear it out, it is destined to circulate forever. Find a friend who knows you are crazy and loves you anyway.
If you find a sounding board to be honest with, you ease whatever causes your anxiety by talking it through. The best cure is hearing yourself talk. It helps you to sort through what you are thinking and feeling. [Read: Good friends are like stars – 18 ways to build lasting friendships]
2. Exercise
Sometimes, constant mind churn is more than just being a worrisome person. If you are prone to anxiety in the face of nothing super anxiety provoking, then you might have a deficit of serotonin or an excess of adrenaline.
Either way, exercising regularly helps you maintain a stable flow of hormones that keep your mind less cluttered, your emotions more stable, and you feel way less anxious. [Read: Benefits of exercise on your mind, body, and libido]
3. Make a list
When things seem to be out of control, that sends you into a free-fall of emotions. To gain some control, make a list of all the things that bother you. Go down the list and try to do what you can to change and realize the other things are all something that you just have to believe will work out.
If you feel out of control, take steps to figure out how to change the things you can. And if you can’t change them, surrender and let those things go.
4. Visualize
Visualization is one of the best tools at your disposal to calm your mind. When life seems to spiral, take a mental time out to visualize what you want to happen. If you sit quietly and focus on what throws you off kilter, visualize the ending. Imagine a positive ending to calm your mind. If you do it enough times, your visualization becomes your reality. It really is that simple. [Read: 12 life questions to help you visualize your future]
5. Try hypnosis
If you own a smart phone, then download a hypnosis app or two. There are a hundred different hypnosis apps on the internet designed to help you tackle anything from social anxiety to stress.
Before you naysay their power, give them a try. All you need are a pair of earphones and the ability to believe they will work. The brain is a miraculous machine guided by beliefs and creating your own reality. Hypnosis might just be the key to a calm mind if you hop onboard and open your mind.
6. Consider therapy
If you experience a hard time calming your mind due to past experiences and history, then they aren’t just going to go away by wishing them so.
Sometimes we must deal with things in our past so that we can let go of the baggage and move forward. If you carry around a backpack full of grievances, grudges, or guilt, it is nearly impossible to find the peace you crave. [Read: Finding peace – How to still your mind and make peace a state of mind]
7. Find your happy place
Meditation sounds like something from the seventies, but it is a simple concept to calm your mind. Find your happy place. When you can’t seem to find stable ground, find a place to be quiet. All you have to do is close your eyes, breathe deeply, and imagine the place you find the most comfort and serenity.
If the ocean is your happy place, imagine yourself at the beach. If you are more of a mountain climber, feel the breeze in your hair as you peer over the cliff. Individual to each person, find the place where you simply exist without all the noise that goes on around you. [Read: 14 easy mantras that will transform your life]
8. Breathe deep
Breathing is one of the best ways to calm your mind. If you stop and take a breath, it is like food for the soul.
Concentrate on nothing but your breathing and the peace you crave. You will be surprised how quickly you exhale whatever causes your anxiety.
9. Put the technology away
It is hard to concentrate and find peace in a world where there are constant messages coming in. If you are a slave to your cell phone or mobile device, you do yourself more harm than good. If you want to calm your mind, then put away the constant stimuli driving your anxiety.
It is hard to find peace when your phone goes off night and day. You worry constantly about social media, or about what you aren’t included or are included in.
10. Stop thinking the worst
Negative attracts negative. If you are someone who always looks on the dark side of things, you worry needlessly. It is a whole lot of wasted energy. If you think positively, then there is nothing to worry about.
You can’t prepare yourself for disappointment no matter how much you wish you could or think you can. If things don’t go your way, it is going to be bad. So why compile wasted worry energy on a bad situation? If you just assume things will go right, then you never have anything to worry about. [Read: How to stop having negative thoughts that drag you down]
11. Figure out what you believe in
Sometimes, the anxiety comes from feeling insecure and not having a compass. If you look at life as random and without any purpose or real intention, it is difficult to find peace. Randomness always leave you feeling insecure.
If you find faith in something or someone, then you might be able to find the peace that sets your mind free.
Worrying does nothing but waste a whole lot of energy needlessly. If you are like me, it isn’t that you don’t know that, it is just that you feel hopeless to change it. The best way to calm your mind is to find out what works for you.
[Read: Nothing makes me happy: How to make happiness your default state]
It might not always be what you want, but everything happens for a reason whether we want it to or not. Finding peace and a way to calm your mind means accepting and believing that even if things are out of control they will be okay.