Nowadays, being anxious is a common thing as we are living in a life where we have to deal with a lot of things daily, professionally and personally. Feeling anxious for an important event is normal, but when you face anxiety disorders, it becomes terrific. Anxiety begins when you know that something in your life is not happening as you have wished. There is a change of events that occur in a chained fashion and gradually, the fear of tracking the pattern of change and coping up with the new thing in life, makes you worried. Soon, the common fear turns out to be anxiety. For the past some years, I am suffering from anxiety. I have panic attacks, quite often. Two years ago I was having panic attacks and palpitations regularly, once in a day, at a certain time period of the day. I had sweating, an increased rate of heart-beats, sometimes I felt my breaths were choked. At the end of the attack, my heart rate became normal and everything was back in form, but I felt too weak to move or even think something. It was natural for me to fall asleep after the attack. Last year, I saw a sudden change in my panic attack timings, and to become worse, it came twice a day to meet me. I had panic attacks for twenty minutes, twice in a day. After some months fighting with my own health, I tried to quiet this demon. I tried some new things to keep my anxiety at bay and escape from the palpitations. And surprisingly, they worked so well!

Here are some ways I have tried to cope up with anxiety and calm down the anxious mind.

Meditation:
When you are feeling anxious about a situation, try to have a deep breath. Deep breathing helps you to calm your mind and bring back the mind to a quieter state. Focus on your breaths, every time you inhale and exhale. It will help you to bring your focus to something else than the factor behind your anxiety.
Meditate daily and try to embrace the void within. When you sit for meditation, just try to keep your concentration to the present moment only. Your mind can traverse in many places as you are feeling anxious from the inside, but try to focus on a certain object. You can utter a word or a group of words or a sentence, repeatedly while meditating. This will help you to keep your mind engaged with the words and this pattern will bring your focus back on track.

Positive Affirmations:
Having your own set of positive affirmations on a regular basis is an effective way to keep the mind calm. There is always a need to tell yourself that you are good, you are beautiful, you are worthy of the world, you are a precious human, you have a nice purpose in life, you are doing good. If there is something that is beyond your control, you can certainly control the actions of your mind and stay calm amid all the turbulence.
Positive affirmations boost your self-confidence and help you to build self-esteem. They are the motivational force to keep your mind calm and staying unaffected amidst all the chaos around you.
Here are the positive affirmations I use personally:
“Whatever went wrong with me, was something beyond to be controlled by me. It was my destiny. But, whatever I chose to become, is still in my hand and will always be. Because what I am meant to be, one day, I will certainly be.”

Creativity:

Creativity means getting involved in a journey of creating something, be it little or big. And tell me what could be a better option than doing creative things to channelize your thoughts in a positive direction?
You can be involved in creativity in any possible way, either doing or watching others doing. You can do something on your own or you can watch someone else doing that like watching a video of singing, or dancing, or painting. This way subconsciously you will be doing the same. You will find happiness while doing it.
As I try to write a quote or a poem or scribble my random thoughts while feeling anxious. I try to make creative designs or sing or recite. Sometimes, I sit for quilling artworks. This helps me to scatter the fear or negative thoughts in my mind and turn them into a beautiful piece of artistic creation.

Journaling:
Writing a daily journal is one of the most effective ways I have used for controlling the level of my stress and anxiety. Every day at night, before going to bed, I recollect all the positive things that happened to me in the day and I write about them. Sometimes, I write what lessons I have learned that day or how I gathered hope to begin anew. Sometimes, I write how I felt while conversing with my friends and what idea came to my mind. Sometimes, I just open my heart out there and write my thoughts on life and its miracles.
Writing a journal helps you to bring out the worries from your mind and helps you to collect positivity from life. And this way, your mind will be directed towards a train of positive thoughts.

Walking:

If you are having anxiety attacks or palpitations or an increased rate of heartbeats at a particular time every day, try to be engaged in doing something creative or physical activities and divert your mind in this way. Doing some physical activities like dancing or yoga or physical exercise can help you to release the negative energy within you and collect positive vibes. You can try even walking meditation. Walking or doing any physical activity will help you to stress out and you will start feeling fit and fine. You will find yourself worthy of a fresh start.

My note:
This is a series titled ‘We need to be heard’ where I am writing about my own fight with various mental health issues and how I felt, how I fought and how I won.
So, these are some ways I have applied personally to curb my anxiety level and keep my mind calm. These all ways worked so well for me that now I don’t have panic attacks or anxiety attacks any more, not even a single time. Now, whenever I feel a bit of anxiety is coming my way, I start feeling anxious, I try to occupy myself with something creative and distract my mind from those anxious thoughts. I start giving myself positive affirmations that everything will be fine, just calm down and relax. Though I meditate daily for years, that time when I feel anxious, I try to increase the hours of meditation and I seek refuge in the realms of spirituality.
Surprisingly, I find calmness soon and start living life without any anxious thoughts.

These all are my own tricks and tips to handle my anxiety problems. I really hope they work for you too. If you need expert consultation, please don’t delay in seeking help. Be vocal about your problems and seek help.

Wish you start living life without any mental health issues very soon. Sending you love and light.

More power to you, always.

(This post is a part of the Cause A Chatter blogging campaign by Blogchatter).