Unnecessary stress and worry do no good for those affected, or the ancillary parties it affects by default. If you’re looking to alleviate symptoms of anxiety and stress here are a few surefire ways to quiet the mind, and train your brain to stop worrying.
THREE STEPS TO TRAIN YOUR BRAIN TO STOP WORRYING
- WHAT ARE YOU WORRYING ABOUT? WRITE IT DOWN.
When you are training your brain to stop worrying, this technique is said to be one of the most valuable.
If your brain is keeping you up at night perseverating on something, write it down on paper or type it in the notepad on your phone. Doing so lets your brain breathe a mental sigh of relief by no longer be required to exhaust energy remembering those details.
Writing it down not only relieves your brain from having to recount so many details, it also sends a clear message that “this is important enough to write down.” Once your brain receives that note, it’ll remember.
According to a recent article published in the journal, Anxiety, Stress & Coping, researchers believe that chronic worriers are often times chronic avoiders.
For the study, worriers were asked to write three possible outcomes for the situation they were stressing at present, then analyze their own answers for practical solutions.
The scientist’s noted that: when participants’ evaluations of their problems were rated for concreteness, both studies showed an inverse relationship between the degree of worry and concreteness: the more participants worried about a given topic, the less concrete was the quality of their evaluation.
These results challenge the view that worry might promote better problem-solving analyses. Instead, they conform to the view that worry is a cognitive avoidance response.
- MEDITATE.
Meditation can help train your brain to stop worrying. In an article in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine, researchers studied the physical and mental effects of meditation. They found that meditation is particularly good for reducing cognitive anxiety, or worry.
Although some people believe that they do not have time to meditate, meditation is as easy as choosing to close your eyes right now for 30 seconds or longer with intent. The act of choosing to tune out other sources of stress is an active step to train your brain to stop worrying.
All it takes is a few moments where you consciously choose to avoid any non-natural noise in your life will allow you to get centered around what is most important to you. Though worrisome thoughts may enter your mind while you meditate, those who have mastered the art of brain training recommend observing the thoughts as they enter the mind, and simply watching them pass like clouds on a breezy day.
- EXERCISE.
Worry causes your brain to activate the fight or flight system. If a cougar jumps out at you, you instantly feel a rush of adrenaline, and this fear response is the same thing that is happening to your body when you worry, just at a much lower level over a longer period of time.
According to the same study referenced about in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine, exercise is good for alleviating symptoms of anxiety including jitters. If your body feels less physical symptoms of stress, your mind interprets that there’s less to worry about because the body isn’t in a state of heightened arousal.
Exercise can help lower blood pressure, which is another physical symptom of stress in the body. If you can identify that you are worrying, go for a 5-10 minute walk, outside if possible. Appreciate the sights and sounds of nature while focusing on the motion of your limbs and the breaths that you take.
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