Have you ever felt anguished ?
Imagine facing hundreds of students on your first day of university… People are looking at you, judging you, laughing, awaiting for your first word. Deep inside, you know that you are able to talk in front of people… but nothing comes out. You are just feeling dizzy and shaking.
Most scientific research about anxiety have been dealing with anxiety disorder, seen as a mental illness, without talking about « daily anxiety ». « Daily anxiety » can be defined as the transient state of anxiety everybody experiences on a daily basis, without being pathological. Few books have been able to give practical tips to help people feeling less anxious on those day to day experience. Our main goal will be to provide tools for people to deal with their anxiety, without medication, and without spending 10 years with your therapist…
Build a schedule and stick to it !
Starting a day can be difficult for everybody. So many things to do, so many things to think about and to deal with… It isn’t so strange to feel anxious, when we have to face so much everyday. How can you make it easier and have a better day ?
A french philosopher, René Descartes, suggested that, when you face a big problem, it is better to split it into many smaller problems. Here’s a tip to make this concept more concrete and to improve your daily life and reduce anxiety. The first step of this process is to find and write what you have to do, to define your goals. In his famous book « Write it Down, Make it Happen », Klauser explains how writing thing makes it easier to find a way to make them happen. So, first step, stop thinking, write it down !
When you know what you have to do, the next step is to set up a schedule. What’s the first step to a good schedule ? Having a breakfast and preparing yourself. Less and less people are having breakfast, according to a HAS study (2017), and more and more people are feeling anxious ! You get my point… Start a day with a good, nutritious breakfast, and spare a time to prepare your schedule and be ready to face your day.
Building a schedule may be difficult. The easier step would be to write, using numbers, the most important things you have to do (1) and going into secondary things (2). Make your day count by doing things you have to do, you will feel better about yourself. Stay focused on things you really have to do, and stop engaging yourself in so many things, causing more harm than good.
Last but not least : Take time to relax during your day (you have to program time to relax, not just fill in the blank of your days!), and be proud of yourself. You just spent a very busy day, and did all the boring things you had to deal with. Now, take time to relax. In our society, anxiousness mainly comes from overthinking and being overwhelmed. You deserve time to relax, and to think about the things you did during the day. Keep your diary or your journal close to you, and write what you’ve been proud to achieve today.
Take time to breath !
Breathing is the most basic tool that can be used everywhere, anytime. It’s all about practicing (about twice daily, during four minutes at least to obtain a good result) !
Indeed, when we fell stressed, we tend to breathe in a faster and more superficial way, with the thoracic cage particularly engaged. As a result, our physiological arousal is high. This state of arousal can be useful during a short period of time, but if it becomes too acute, chronic or long, we start to feel exhausted. By learning how to breathe, you will short-circuit the information given to your body (“I’m feeling relaxed”) and, thus, to your brain (“I’m relaxed”).
So now, how to practice abdominal breathing ?
- Before focusing on your breathing, take a moment to notice how you are feeling at the moment.
- Try to find a comfortable position. For example, sitting back, in a quiet place, or while listening to music you like.
- Then, place a hand on your abdomen to feel the air coming in and going out of your body.
- Imagine that your stomach is a ball : when you’re breathing in, the ball gets full of air; when you’re breathing out, the ball empties itself.
- Breathe in through your nose in a deep, long and slow way.
- Hold on your breath for one or two seconds, keeping the air inside.
- After that, slowly breathe out through your mouth for four seconds.
- Repeat this breathing process for four minutes at least.
- And now, how do you feel ?When you will have mastered this process, you can add an extra step to obtain even better results.
This part consists in imagining that :
- When you’re inflating your stomach, you’re full of a color, a specific smell, a sensation that you like which conveys good feelings, good thoughts.
- During expiration, on the contrary, you are getting rid of a color, a smell, a sensation which makes you feel uncomfortable.
Be mindfull
Building a schedule and learning how to breathe in a deeper way are both great ways to manage your daily anxiety and provide a sense of relief and control on your life. For our last tip, we will focus on a different method aiming at taking some distance from daily life : mindfulness. Behind this strange name is a method based on meditation that is increasingly popular, and that relies on the power of inner calm and peace. By practicing mindfulness, you learn how to observe the flow of your thoughts and let them pass without judgment. It is a long process that takes time to be fully mastered, but experiencing it even just for a little while every now and then in times of stress can have a significant impact. The body scanning is a good tool to get in touch with the emotions and tensions you experience physically, and to let them go. The goal is to mentally inspect successively every part of your body, to acknowledge them and feel connected to yourself. It takes a few minutes, and this is how you can do it :
First, it is important to practice in a quiet environment, preferably always at the same time, for example when you are going to bed and are calmly lying down in a comfortable position. Breathe deeply (by using the method described in the second section for example…) and close your eyes. You can learn the steps on your own or start with vocal guided body scans (there are many videos and apps available online). Start by paying attention to your feet, your toes, your ankles then move up your legs, knees and thighs. Carry on by slowly moving up your body and focusing on your pelvis, your belly, eventually your inner organs if it fells relevant to you. Maybe it will be hard, at first, to put your attention precisely and directly on your organs, and not having detailed and separate sensations for your stomach or your intestine etc. is not an obstacle to the completion of the exercise. After that, concentrate on your chest then your shoulders, arms and hands. While keeping still, try to direct your mind all the way to the end of your fingers. Finally, move up your neck, you head, and the parts of your face (maybe by feeling the air coming in and out of your nose, the freshness of the air you exhale, etc.). It is crucial for this process to be efficient not to rush yourself, as the feeling of relaxation and calm comes with some time. Do not blame yourself if you fall asleep midway the exercise, it proves the stress has gone away ! When you are used to the body scan method, you can start using it in moments of stress, to take a step back and decrease your anxiety.
Hopefully, these three tricks will be good tools to helps you manage your moments of anxiety, but there are many more you can discover and try to use. The main component of anxiety management is to find something that suits you so that you will practice regularly and have the most efficient results.
Malo Roman, Champigny Clara, Paez Justine
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Words we have learned:
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- To feel dizzy : avoir la tête qui tourne, être pris de vertige
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- Acute : aigu
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- Tricks : astuces
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- Overwhelmed : accablé, submergé
- Something that suits you : quelque chose qui vous convient, qui vous va