Anxiety's symptoms are challenging enough, yet being conscious of these symptoms can intensify the experience. It's typical to experience anxiety as a reaction to life events and triggers. The signals of anxiety, generated by the "fight or flight" system, supports our innate drive for survival. Survival is at the core of anxieties intense symptoms.
Anxiety can feel sudden and unexplained, with no pattern or explanation. Humans have an innate drive to discover, understand, and take charge of problems. When we cannot locate the problem, the fear and frustration increases. This can cause a person to feel helpless and hopeless, at the mercy of anxieties symptoms. Knowing the catalyst of your anxiety is not essential for discovering ways to ease it.
Anxiety is a physiological reaction, . There are some effective interventions to relieve the bodily symptoms of anxiety? It is the Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) that is activated during anxiety. Hormones like adrenaline, insulin, and cortisol are released by the body. This warning system, with increased energy and a shift of blood flow to major muscles and organs, urges you to run away and then avoid situations that resemble the threat in the future.
The good news is that we also have the Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS) to bring us down from the high-intensity activation system of the SNS. Think of a parachute bringing you down to safety.
Learning to activate the Parasympathetic Nervous System (PSN), otherwise known as the relaxation response, is an important skill. Deep abdominal breathing techniques, muscles relaxation techniques, mindfulness skills, chants, exercise, and yoga are all excellent choices when trying to encourage the relaxation response and restore balance. If you can incorporate these behavioral strategies into your daily routine, you may be less susceptible to being overtaken by anxiety.
There are many excellent books and community resources to support the learning of these techniques. Check out some of my video's with my favorite guided exercise. Try different ones and find which works best for you.
Remember, try not to worry about feeling anxious about feeling anxious! Anxiety isn't inherently dangerous, but necessary if we really do need to escape danger.
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