Anxiety is a feeling that something will go wrong when preparing for an activity or event. Feeling anxious is normal and can sometimes help as it can help you work towards perfection. However, for some people, anxiety can last long, and they may experience intense symptoms for many hours or days. They often sense danger where there is none or face difficulty sleeping. When these symptoms last a long time, it leads to anxiety disorder.

Impact of anxiety
The perception of impending danger, even though there is none, directly affects one’s bodily functions. If the symptoms are short-lived, there is no danger at all. However, if the symptoms last more than a few weeks, they can affect our thoughts, behavior, and emotions. The impact on these functions depends on the intensity of the symptoms a person feels.

Cognitive
Anxiety impacts how we think. Your mind could immediately worry about the threat, and you could be upset or feel threatened with anxiety.

Physical
Some physical reactions you may feel when you are anxious includes increased heart rate, nervous tics like shaking legs or picking nails, muscle tension, increased tension, tremors, breathlessness, nausea, freezing, and blanking out.

Behavior
When you are anxious, your behavior can change by either doing something new or avoiding things you have been doing so far. For example, a few common behavioral changes you may notice when you are anxious are avoidance, moping, isolation or staying inside the house, tensing, avoiding eye contact, sleep disturbance, compulsive behavior, feeling guilty, and negative self-talk.

Tips for managing anxiety
When people become anxious, they think less clearly, and the vicious circle continues until every safe situation seems dangerous. Knowing that it triggers cognitive, behavioral, and physical changes, you worry about that too, which doubles anxiety. Psychiatrists have worked out some tips to help people with anxiety disorders so that they can recognize what is making them anxious, detect the symptoms and slowly work on reducing the anxiousness. Follow these eleven tips and get over anxiety step by step.

Learning more about anxiety
Talk to your therapist or read more about anxiety. Anxiety is normal for everyone, and our body warns us about imminent danger. The problem arises when you perceive a threat when there is none. Understand the crucial facts about anxiety disorders. Once you know it is a curable condition with much scope for self-help, it can give you the confidence to overcome your anxiety. Learning more about anxiety can be the first step towards tackling it head-on.

Recognizing and challenging unhelpful thoughts
Some classic examples of unhelpful thoughts are, ‘I may fail,’ ‘Everyone will ignore me,’ ‘They think I am crazy,’ or ‘Something terrible is going to happen now.’ People with anxiety tend to focus on these negative thoughts and start worrying, and it keeps growing. Identify such thoughts and assumptions and jot them down in a journal. Challenge these negative thoughts, ask yourself multiple questions, answer them honestly and change your behavior. When you do this repeatedly every time you feel anxious, you can identify such negative thoughts right at the root and discard them.

Sharpening problem-solving skills
Too much anxiety impairs your problem-solving ability. To avoid such situations, identify the problem immediately and list possible solutions. However, you can execute such solutions with conviction since you develop them independently. Being prepared with a solution is a definite way to reduce worry.

Worrying is worthless
Keep convincing yourself that worrying has no practical benefits. You tend to worry because you believe that it is good to worry. Once you determine nervousness is worthless, your attachment to it reduces, and you can focus more on what you need to do.

Recognizing your worry
Maintain a journal where you can note the things you worry about most. Identifying the triggers of anxiety is an essential step toward fighting it.

Categorizing your worries
Go through your journal and classify the worries into real and hypothetical problems. Identify the concerns that you can control and the ones you cannot. For example, while you can manage your project outcome, you cannot control when your flight lands. Classifying the worries you face helps you to teach what problems are worth worrying about and what are not.

Learn to stop worrying
Set 10-15 minutes of your time to think about your worries and make a commitment you will not worry about anything that happens outside of this time. Note down the concerns that you have during that time and list out possible solutions. Once you learn to control the things you need to worry about, you will eventually stop worrying.

Learn to breathe and relax
People experiencing anxiety may notice that their heartbeat quickens when they get anxious, which is the body’s natural response to stress. Try breathing in counts of four or five for five minutes. It will help you cool down and calm your heart. You can also practice tensing and relaxing your muscles a few times; it helps reduce overall tension and help you relax.

Getting comfortable with uncertainty
Uncertainty of outcomes is one of the biggest anxiety triggers and makes you worry. Get comfortable with uncertainty so that the pressure of a favorable outcome reduces. Change your behavior by stopping to check things often, asking for others’ help and opinions, and trying to delegate simple tasks to others. As you slowly stop focusing on outcomes, it automatically makes you worry less and, in turn, reduces anxiety.

Facing your fears
Self-help, along with the guidance of counselors, is the best way to beat anxiety. Watch closely, observe the improvements in your breathing, and record your progress in a journal or diary. Note down every activity you did to overcome anxiety and how it affected your anxiety. Tracking your progress can help you become braver one step at a time and get out of the vicious cycle of anxiety.

Practicing
It takes time, commitment, and a lot of effort to stop worrying. Once you have understood the different tips, keep practicing. You may not be successful in the first few attempts. Do not give up, and keep practicing these tips whenever you feel anxious. Regular practice can help create new habits that help you manage your anxiety.