photo: For Love And Lemons
Anxiety Disorders affect 18.1% of adults in the United States (although this figure is more likely to be around 30%), and in England, women are almost twice as likely to be diagnosed with anxiety disorders as men. As women, we are living in a world where there’s so much pressure to excel, to exceed, to look better, to be more successful, that anxiety is starting to become a big part our lives.
We need to find a simple, straight-forward way of tackling anxiety head on. In a recent interview, the American self-help author Tony Robbins discussed his 90-second rule to “Kill the monster while it’s a baby, [not waiting] til it’s Godzilla eating the city”.
Our Brains Help Us To Survive:
Robbins describes a survival mechanism in our brains that’s always looking for what’s wrong. Your mind will never let you enjoy the taste of an apple because it will go, ‘Is it organic? Where did it come from?’ versus your heart, which can bring the juice of anything back to you. He argues that t o rid your mind of anxiety, you need to get in touch with your heart.
Feel It For 90 Seconds, Figure It Out, Let It Go:
This is Tony’s 90-second trick to stop anxiety in its tracks – anywhere, anytime:
1. Think of the situation making you anxious, a place where there is unfinished business.
Think of it on a scale of 0 to 10, with 10 being totally stressed out and 0 being not at all.
2. Put both your hands on your heart, and take a deep breath straight into your heart.
Feel its power and beauty. Breathe into it and feel the blood flow. What are you proud of, or grateful for, that your heart has guided you to do? Be grateful to your heart. As long as your heart is beating, you have the gift of life.
3. As you breathe into your heart, think of three events in your life that you are grateful for.
Step into each memory for a minute, as if you were there. Breathe the way you were breathing back then. Fill your body with gratitude as you breathe life into that memory.
4. Use this state to solve the problem.
Stay out of your head, stay in your heart and ask yourself this question about your problem situation: “All I need to focus on in this situation, all I need to remember is—what?” Your heart knows the answer. It knows what to do. Even if you don’t get complete clarity in the problem, the state shift is so important because you don’t just see the problem, you see the space in between.
The ideas in this article were paraphrased/inspired by Tony Robbins’s interview with Tim Ferris – you can listen to the full version here.
How do you usually tackle anxiety?
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