Habits to stop anxiety

Anxiety becomes a normal occurrence in the world we are currently living in and the only way to reduce the amount of overall anxiety is by working on it long term. Here are some habits to stop anxiety.

Reminder: I am not a therapist, these posts are for self-help purposes and don’t get rid of the need to see a therapist. Some anxieties can have a deep-rooted cause.

Meditation

You probably knew that this was going to be the number one in all the habits to stop anxiety and that’s because it is incredibly effective when done regularly. Meditating for five to ten minutes in the morning and in the evening can help tremendously with overthinking and overwhelm. Stopping your thoughts for a while and noticing that you still exist without panicking about your work and the state of the world can be incredibly helpful to get back on track.

Journaling

A big part of anxiety are our thoughts. For most people it can be hard to figure out why they are anxious by just listening to their thoughts. That’s why you should really try journaling all of your jumbled brain mess out onto paper or a Word document. It doesn’t have to make sense as a whole but it will help you to see what exactly is on your mind. You either feel better after not having to store all of it in your mind anymore or you will start seeing repeated thought patterns that you can work on changing.
It’s also good to have a little gratitude section with every journaling entry. Just write down 3 things you are grateful for that day and keep doing it regularly. It really helps!

Daily Mindfulness

Mindfulness is essential for your sanity. Taking it slow while eating and doing some breathing exercises here and there while you are working can improve your stress levels quite a bit. I love to do mindfulness exercises while I work on my computer. Just trying to breathe deeply and concentrate on something. Another good place to practice mindfulness is on walks. I love going on little walks and noticing all the little things I didn’t see there before.

Creativity

Being in a creative flow is an equivalent to meditation since you are concentrated and undistracted. But even if you DO get distracted, being creative is a great idea to get rid of overthinking and overwhelm. Put your phone aside, get out pen and paper or anything else you’d like to do and start. When I find myself spiraling I often start doodling on my iPad or writing fiction on my computer. It helps me take a break from reality and sometimes it is really needed. 

Positive thoughts to disrupt anxious ones

If you have some of your repeating thought patterns figured out, you can proceed with creating positive thoughts to disrupt them. We are a worrying bunch of cells most of the time, so start answering to your “What if this goes wrong?” with a “But when if it goes perfectly fine?”
It takes a while to go into full effect, but the more you use this and other positive disruptors, you will see a big difference in how you wander through this world.

Working out

Stress helps excess energy do some bad stuff to your body. I once couldn’t open my mouth anymore because I was so stressed that my excess energy manifested in me pressing my teeth at night and creating tension in my jaw. Think about how much more physical work our ancestors had to do and now look at you probably sitting while reading this. We still have all that energy that they needed, but we don’t use it up, so our body does it for us when we are stressed. That is just one of the many reasons why you should get in at least a 10 minute long workout every few days.

Sleeping enough

I’m always a bit sad that this has to be said, but sleep should be non-negotiable in your schedule. Getting at least seven hours of sleep is very important, especially in times of high stress. It’s even better if you have a routine for when you go to sleep and when you wake up, because that helps your mental health too. In all these habits to stop anxiety you might wanna start with this one first if you haven’t already.

These were all my habits to stop anxiety or at least the few most essential ones. If you want to track some of them you can get free printable habit trackers in my freebie library along with journaling prompts and a mini eBook on things that are good for your mind. Sign up to join my newsletter squad to get those freebies and several others:

PS: Here is a post about habits you should develop to get out of depression.

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