Anxiety, just reading the name alone can trigger its symptoms for so many of us!  The worry, fear, and nervousness are felt at multiples levels and can be expressed in a variety of ways.  Emotional expression of anxiety can be one of panic.  Mentally anxiety cause us to ruminate over our concerns causing a state of analysis paralysis.  Physically, hearts can race and breathing becomes shallower.  Our bodies can begin sweating, trembling and contribute to a lowering of our immune system.  The good news is that there are simple ways to help ease the effects of anxiety.  Read on, and try the following four ways to reduce the effect of anxiety in your life.

1. Don’t Forget to Breathe!

During an anxiety attack people become so consumed by their worries that they forget the simple act of breathing.  Although it may feel difficult, when the concerns start clouding your ability to be you, create a moment of rest and taking a mindful cleansing breath.  This act will shift your focus back to the present where you have the ability to take immediate steps to fix your issues.

If you have more time to devote to mindful breathing, consider creating a grounding mantra.  Mantras can help you settle more deeply into your breathing and allow you to experience greater relaxation.  Breathing exercises in general, allow people to focus more on the present and creates space to listen to one’s Inner Voice.

Begin by getting into a comfortable position and close your eyes.  Mindfully, inhale slowly and then exhale equally as slow through your nose.  Focus on this present moment.  Allow a mantra to come into your mind that brings you a sense of direction and comfort.  On your next inhale visualize the first half of the mantra.  On the next exhale visualize the second half.  Repeat tying your mantra to your breath for a few more cycles.  When you feel calmer, open your eyes, slowly release from your position, and return to your daily routine.

2. Nonjudgmentally Explore the Roots of Your Insecurities

Anxiety is a vicious cycle.  We worry and therefore release adrenaline that can tax our body and causes us to worry more.  We can be so caught in this loop that we fail to look at what is really bothering us and why.  To begin to ease the effects of anxiety we must understand what is really behind our concerns and why.  It is important to create space and time to explore your thoughts and feelings without feelings of shame or guilt.  One of the best ways to process your thoughts, feelings and emotions is by writing in a journal.  You might also find working with a therapist or trusted confidante to be especially helpful at not just understand what is going on in your mind, but how to create steps towards healing.

3. Understand What you Can and Cannot Fix

Do you often find yourself worrying about things that are illusions or unlikely to occur?  It happens to us all from time to time, but there is little benefit from focusing on unrealistic thoughts.  Instead of fixating on these nerve-wracking illusions, choose to focus on aspects of your life that are within your control.  The unknown is scary, but it also can provide us valuable lessons.  Greet the crossroads in your life with a sense of gratitude and preparedness.  By create small simple steps toward success on your journey you can help ease the “gremlins” or limiting beliefs in your mind.

Consider a fear of meeting a new person after being hurt in a previous relationship.  Begin by thanking the universe for no longer wasting your precious time and energy on an unfulfilling romance.  If you have one main interest that you couldn’t share with your last partner consider focusing your dating search around this key passion of yours.  This way instead of feeling anxiety prior to a date and being consumed by thoughts of if and how this new person could hurt you, you can breathe and focus on how this new person experience joy from your shared passion.  By centering your attitude around positivity, you can feel more in control and peaceful when facing a new scenario.

4. Ground Yourself!

If you find your anxiety spiking, breathe and focus your attention onto something that brings you peace.  Try listening to music, going for a walk, meditating. or being creative.  By finding enjoyment and peace you can better regulate your heartrate and breathing.  Soon you will find your concerns being transformed into something more productive, and you can begin to heal yourself in a proactive way.

Stress is just a part of life. It affects your overall well-being. You won’t always have control over your circumstances, but you can control your response to them. It helps to have effective techniques to relieve stress, but unfortunately, there’s no one-size-fits-all method. Besides, what works when you’re at home may not be usable when you’re working or running errands.

So, it helps to know of multiple stress relief techniques that work for you. This will allow you to choose the technique that will work best in whatever your current situation may be.

All-Purpose Stress-Relief

The best stress relief techniques can be practiced anywhere, don’t cost anything, take little practice to master, and bring about immediate relief.

Here are five common techniques that fit those requirements:

1. Visualization

Visualization simply involves imaging yourself in your “happy place.” It’s like a short vacation in your mind. To practice visualization, simply close your eyes and imagine yourself in a peaceful setting. Focus on each sensory experience, and let yourself feel as if you’’re actually there. For example, picture yourself sitting on a beach. Hear the waves, smell the ocean, and feel the warm sand beneath you. After a few minutes, just open your eyes and return to the present.

2. Meditation

There are many different meditation techniques. You may develop a mantra to repeat mentally as you take deep, slow breaths. Or practice mindfulness, which focuses your awareness on the present moment, leaving no room for rumination about past events or for worry over the future.

3. Release Muscle Tension

Recognizing and addressing muscle tightness and tension allows you to relax more easily. Progressive muscle relaxation is the group-by-group relaxation of all of your muscles. To practice, take a few deep breaths. Then, tighten and relax each muscle group, starting with your toes and moving up to your forehead.

4. Just Breathe

Focusing on your breathing calms your brain and your body in just a couple minutes, and nobody else will know you’re doing them. So, breathing exercises can help reduce your stress even if you’re in a stressful meeting or a crowded theater. Here are two simple breathing exercises:

• Inhale through your nose and count slowly to three as you fill your lungs with air. Hold for one second, then count slowly to three again as you breathe out through your nose.
• Breathe in through your nose while imagining you’re inhaling calm, peaceful air. Visualize that air dispersing throughout your body. As you breathe out, imagine that you’re exhaling tension and stress.

5. Go for a Walk

Taking walks will treat you to a change of scenery, getting you into a fresh frame of mind. They also include the benefits of exercise. Whether you take a break from a frustrating task by strolling around the office, or you decide to meander through a park after dinner, walking will reinvigorate your body, mind, and spirit.

At-Home Stress-Relief

These three stress relief techniques will help you relax when you’re in the privacy of your home:

1. Physical Touch

Physical touch, such as snuggling with or hugging a loved one, is an underrated way to reduce stress. Snuggling releases oxytocin, which is nicknamed the “love hormone.” Oxytocin raises happiness levels while lowering stress levels, decreasing blood pressure, and reducing stress hormones.

2. Aromatherapy

Aromatherapy helps you feel energized, more relaxed, and more present in the moment. And certain plant extracts and essential oils affect brain waves and reduce stress hormone levels. Aromatherapy can involve candles, diffusers, and body products.

3. Be Creative

Creating artwork has a meditative effect. Being creative is easy for children, but it’s not too late for adults to start. Try painting or drawing, or color in a coloring book. Anxiety levels decline when people color complex geometric patterns, which makes coloring an excellent stress-reducing activity.

Long-Term Stress-Relief

It’s important to create a lifestyle that will help you face challenges and combat stress in a healthy way.

These six habits promote stress resilience and increase general wellness:

1. Eat Well

An unhealthy diet brings greater susceptibility to stress. Comfort food, high-sugar, and high-fat foods provide temporary stress relief, but only compound long-term stress. Refined carbohydrates, such as sweets and salty snacks, cause blood sugar to spike. When blood sugar levels inevitably crash, many people experience increased anxiety and stress. A healthy diet helps combat stress. Foods like fatty fish, leafy greens, and nuts and seeds help balance energy, reduse tension, and regulate moods.

2. Take Time Off

Leisure activities are a great way to reduce stress. Including downtime in your schedule will help you feel your best. Leisure time will make your work time more productive, because when people feel good, they function more efficiently.

3. Speak Positively to Yourself

Self-talk matters. Self-criticism and self-doubt are never helpful and only serve to stress you out. Talk to yourself in a compassionate, more realistic manner. Instead of calling yourself names or doubting your ability to succeed, engage in a gentler inner dialogue. This will help you develop a more positive outlook and successfully manage your emotions.

4. Practice Yoga

Yoga combines physical movement, meditation, light exercise, and controlled breathing, all of which provide physical, psychological, and spiritual benefits. You’ll definitely reap benefits from doing yoga once. But consistently incorporating yoga into your life will yield long-term benefits. To get started, enroll in a class, explore an online program, or find a yoga app.

5. Be Grateful

Expressing gratitude makes you conscious of everything you have in your life to be thankful for. Ponder all of the good things, even if they seem insignificant: It’s a sunny day. You safely got to work. Make it a habit to express what you’re thankful for. Start a gratitude journal, or discuss gratitude with your family as you sit together at dinner.

6. Exercise

Physical activity improves mental health and helps manage stress. There are many ways to incorporate physical activity into your day—join a gym, take a class, or exercise outside.

Finding your optimal stress relief strategies will take time and practice. But it’s important to have techniques to successfully navigate the unavoidable ups and downs of life.

Negative patterns are habits and behaviors that hold us back from accomplishing all that we want and make it hard for us to develop and have self-realization. Regardless of who we are or what we do, we all possess them as they are part of everyday life. Our success and well-being depend on us releasing these unproductive patterns, it doesn’t matter who we are.  I am going to help you understand why we have bad patterns and how we can use skills to release them.

Negative patterns. Below are a few examples of negative patterns. You may possess some of these:

• Having negative thoughts
• Not paying attention
• Avoiding responsibility
• Blaming and criticizing others
• Agreeing to all assumptions
• Not embracing transformation
• Not valuing yourself
• Complaining
• Overthinking
• Not eating healthy
• Addiction
• Being indecisive
• Lack of self-control
• Withdrawing
• Ineffective communication
• Being disorganized
• Procrastinating

Prepare a list of your negative patterns and be ready to be truthful. You can seek opinions from friends if you want to spot them, but I’d also suggest practicing mindfulness so that you can pay much attention to your thoughts and habits without discriminating or judging them.

Other times these negative patterns are just part of us but we do not want to embrace them and therefore decides to project them to others. Due to this, we need to develop self-acceptance and take responsibility for the bad and the good things in our lives. Mindfulness helps us to accept rather than live in denial.

 Why we have negative patterns?

Negative patterns give us feedback on our personal growth and self-development. Instead of seeing them as faults, we can see them as benefits, something we can benefit from.

We can learn through self-awareness how to identify something better for us when we have negative patterns. Just like muscles, our personalities also use resistance to grow.

Are you one of the millions of people who are overwhelmed by the number of choices and options we face on a daily basis these days?

If you’re feeling overwhelmed, you’re not alone. The proof is in the countless number of self-help books and articles about simple living. And, while one would think that a book about simple living would be, well.. simple, they are often not. Some of them boast as many as 1,500 ways to simplify life. That’s around 10 times the amount of tips that the average person can read, process, remember and utilize in everyday life.

To make matters worse, a lot of these books will tell you that getting rid of most of your stuff will simplify your life. But, if you live a complicated life and have a cluttered mind, getting rid of the clutter in your environment is only one way to deal with the problem. It’s certainly not a total solution. In other words, an organized sock drawer may make you feel better about your sock storage decisions, but won’t have much effect on the rest of your life.

Simple living is less about how much stuff you have and more about making better decisions

You can live a minimalist life with a clutter- free environment and still have a cluttered mind. Today we have so many choices and options that it is easy to get overwhelmed by it all, which leaves most people at a standstill, choosing to make NO decision. Before we take any action, we make a decision, and before we make a decision we are given a number of choices. So in order to simplify life, it makes sense to limit your choices so that decisions are easier and more actions are likely to be taken. Here are just a few of the benefits you’ll receive by limiting your options:

You’ll be less overwhelmed with daily life

Imagine that you’ve decided to subscribe to a streaming service, such as Netflix, only to discover that they offer 30 different plans which they think will fit the needs of their customers. It’s not likely that you’ll read through all 30 plans and choose one. Instead, you’ll go find a service that offers three plans, and then choose one of those. You actually do things similar to this all the time in various aspects of your life and don’t realize it. So, starting out with fewer options saves you some time and stress.

You’ll make better decisions

Decision fatigue is a very real thing. Ray F. Baumeister, a social psychologist, conducted a series of experiments on undergraduates. The results showed that making decisions requires mental energy, and that we have a limit to that energy.

The undergraduates were asked to perform tasks which required them to make a decision and use willpower to accomplish. They were less able to make decisions and fight off temptation during the next task.

Basically, the findings were this: you’re less able to make good decisions after you’ve already made a lot of decisions.

The fewer options you have, the more objective you’ll be

With fewer options, you’ll be less likely to be tempted by an overly indulgent choice.

Consider a buff and. If you’re on a diet, a buffet with many options will make the decision to eat healthy food a hard one. But, picking the healthiest food out of three options is far easier. Having fewer options makes decision-making a lot easier.

How to limit your options and simplify your life

Now that you know about the benefits of having fewer options, here are three ideas you can use to simplify your life:

1. Cut down on the options you have in daily life

There are number of decisions you make every day, such as what you wear, what you eat and what route you take to get to work. So, take time to think about how to simplify them.

When it comes to choosing what to wear, there are several ways to simplify this decision. You could plan your outfits the night before, or plan them for the week. Or, you could find a simple signature style combination. Steve Jobs liked a black turtleneck and jeans, Mark Zuckerberg likes gray T-shirts, and the Queen of England is partial to picking a dress with a brooch that matches it.

When it comes to making decisions about food, you have some options to simplify this process, as well. Planning your meals for the week cuts down on indecisiveness. And prepping your meals for the week ensures that you’ll stick to your plans.

2. Think about what’s most important to you

Let’s say you’re trying to make a decision between two job offers. One is an hour and a half commute and pays more. The other is closer to home and pays less. So the choice here is about whether the long commute is worth it to you for the extra pay.

Many of the decisions in our lives come and go. But if we know what’s important to us and what’s negotiable, they’re easier to make.

3. Use your imagination

One easy way to decide on what you want to eat is to imagine what each one of your  choices taste like. You can also imagine how your stomach will feel after you’ve eaten it. Will you be pleasantly full, or full of indigestion? Does the orange chicken or the pepper steak jump out at you?

This works with other decisions, as well. If you choosing between working for someone full time and freelancing, think about how you’ll feel. If the thought of drumming up your own business is stressful, rather than exciting, it’s easier to make the decision to steer clear of it.

You’ll be surprised how often this exercise helps you through daily decisions.

Our lives are full of decisions. But, we tend to overwhelm ourselves with so many choices that we choose to make no choice.

Confucius said: “Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.”

When we get overwhelmed by our choices and make no choices, we make no decisions and therefore take no action. Taking no action could lead to an unfulfilled life.

But, what if the act of streamlining the decision-making process could lead to an action that actually gives you the life that you want? You’ll never know if you don’t try. Try these three ideas today. If nothing else, they’ll make make life easier.