Conquering Anxiety: Coping Skills

Hi everyone! Thank you for following our Conquering Anxiety Series. We are in week 3! Last week we covered the cycle of anxiety. Please review the post here if you have not yet. The way this series is planned, it is important to follow the posts in the right order to benefit from the series. So if you stumble upon a random post, I recommend going back to the master and catching up in the right order. 

In the last post, we talked about the cycle of anxiety! How the choices we make can weaken or strengthen the cycle. But the reality is, just knowing that we are doing the right thing does not make it any easy. It is still so hard to stand up to anxiety. This is why coping skills exist! These are ways you can make your anxiety manageable, and activate your parasympathetic nervous system. They should not be used with the intent to run away from anxiety as that is only going to strengthen the cycle of anxiety. Instead, think of them as your support system while you tackle your fears. 

Here are some effective and simple coping strategies

Grounding Techniques

The 5-4-3-2-1 Method

This is one of the most used methods where you ground yourself. Here is how it works:

Look around you and identify

🔎 5 things you can see around you (clock,laptop, phone etc)

📲 4 things you can touch around you or are currently touching  (your phone, floor etc)

📢 3 things you are currently hearing (fan, AC, birds chirping, traffic etc)

🌼2 things you are smelling (coffee, your perfume etc)

✨1 emotion you are feeling (Happy, sad, anxious)

It is a good way to take your mind off your intense feeling of anxiety and helps you focus on what is in front of you. 

Diaphragmatic Breathing

Also known as belly breathing or abdominal breathing. The best way to understand how to do it is through watching a video such as the one linked below. 

📺Watch a video on this here

If you find this challenging to do while sitting up, try it while lying down and it is a lot easier to do! Once you get used to it, it becomes easier to do it sitting up. This technique can help relax you during times of distress but you should not wait for anxiety to kick in and instead make it a point to practice this for a couple of minutes day and night and make it a part of your routine. 

The 4-7-8 Method

These numbers may be easier to remember and use compared to the first numbers technique as this is relatively simpler. We are again focusing on our breathing like the last method, however, it's fine if you can’t do it through your belly just yet! 

Here is how you do this

• Let go of any air you are holding (empty your lungs of air)
• Inhale through your nose for 4 seconds
• Hold up to 7 seconds
• Exhale through your mouth, through the lips, and make a whoosh sound (whoosh sound is optional, it's okay if you can’t)
• Do it for 4 cycles!

Remember that this is what we want to work our way up to, it's fine if you can’t hold for 7 seconds yet or exhale in a controlled way, with practice this becomes easy, just do what you can!

The second thing to note is that when we get anxious air feels scarce, and some people don’t want to take deep breaths, in that case, you may not like the Diaphragmatic Breathing in times of heightened anxiety but this 4-7-8 method can work as you don’t have to take deep breaths, just follow the second's rule, focus on that instead of how deep the breath is or where it is going. 

Now you have these three techniques, make it a point to practice them again and again so that they become second nature to you and when you do feel the anxiety rising, you don’t have to try and remember what the tools were. Some individuals may prefer one or the other and that's okay, find what works for you!

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Technique

Leaves on a stream

We have learned how to ground ourselves and reduce the intensity of the anxiety we are dealing with. However to be able to do that we need to understand that thoughts are just thoughts, just because you think something does not mean it's true. You can view your thoughts without passing judgment or engaging with them. 

To practice this skill, there is a meditation called ‘Leaves on the Stream’

📺Watch the Video here

❗Tasks for you

1. Go through all three of the grounding exercises and complete them. 
2. Completes the leaves on the stream meditation

Share with us how these exercises made you feel and one way you can incorporate at least one of these into your daily routine

Further Reading

• Diaphragmatic Breathing
  
• 7 deep breathing exercises to help you calm anxiety
• How to use 4-7-8 breathing for anxiety