New Series is here! Conquering Anxiety

Hi everyone! I hope you have been doing well. It is time to launch our third series! We have covered the following topics already!

• Learning about cognitive distortions
• Building Self-esteem Series

I have been searching for what to introduce next and I have come across many posts and group conversations where people have again and again talked about the challenges they experience because of their unmanaged anxiety. That is why our topic for this series is ‘Conquering Anxiety’. Many report feeling significantly better after applying the techniques we will cover in this series. Think of this series as the ultimate walkthrough for managing anxiety. We will talk about methods that have worked for people and I hope we can also hear some success stories. So if you feel weighed down by your anxiety, not sure how to effectively reduce its intensity, this is a series I highly recommend. This is hard work, this is why I encourage you to partake in this series so we can all go through this path together! Things are less scary when we are in it together. 

The methods, and techniques presented in this series are proactive ways of dealing with anxiety and taking power away from it. That is why I have named it 'conquering anxiety' as opposed to managing anxiety (which was my initial pick). You can take back the power and this series will show you the way but only you can do the work! 

Anyone who completes the series with us will get a certificate to show for it! Here is how you qualify

• Respond to all posts of the series before the series's announced end. This will be either end of June or early July. It will be announced close to the end of the series in June. 
• Complete all exercises relevant to the series. You will need to keep track of all the exercises you did on a Google Doc/word document so you can later submit it in a form to avail of the badge. 

You can of course take part in the posts as per your liking, skip a few or skip exercises but the above guidelines apply if you wish to avail of the certificate attached to the series. 

What can you expect from the series?

The series will cover the following topics, there maybe some changes to the topics included as per the need of the participants like we introduced an additional post (Facing fear of failure) in our building self esteem series. 

• Learning by doing: Think of this series as a workshop. There will be little benefit to reading these posts if you are not applying them. 
• Exposure therapy: There are many ways people approach conquering anxiety but this series is focused one of the most effective methods out there which is exposure therapy! Will it be hard? Yes, can you do hard things? Absolutely! I understand if you are not ready to explore that just yet but you should know, this will be the central focus of the series. 
• Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT): We will cover an ACT method that will helps one detach from their thoughts. 
• Grounding Techniques: Short, to the point memorable techniques to help you stay in the moment and activate the parasympathetic nervous system
• Focusing on what matters: We will not spend too much time on figuring out the whys and whens and hows of anxiety, we are focused on reducing it even if we don’t know why we are anxious. 
• Learning from others: We will hear the stories of people who have successfully reduced their anxiety. Please reach out to contribute to the post if you wish to be featured. 
• Master resource in the making: I hope that when this series is finished, it includes all applicable knowledge of managing anxiety available on cups and some from other sources in one space that can be linked to anyone who wishes to conquer their anxiety. 

Please use your member account to participate in the series. If you do not have one or really want to use Listener account, you will bear the responsibility of ensuring you do not overshare on a listener account. I expect the series to wrap up before end of June with an average of one post per week and a total of less than 10 posts.  If you have resources that you have found effective in helping people with anxiety, send them to me via PMs. 

❗Disclaimer! While the content to be covered in this series will be based on research and people's lived experiences in figuring out their anxiety, If the content of the series clashes with the directions of your therapist or other such healthcare providers, please follow their approach. View this as a general resource, not an alternative to professional counselling. 

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