Anxiety And Discouragement: How They Are Related And How To Overcome It
Living with anxiety and discouragement is a draining experience that causes us discomfort and that unfortunately is becoming more and more frequent. Anxiety leads us to stress, exhaustion and anguish, and discouragement subjects us to a vicious cycle of discomfort and negative thoughts that seem to never stop. Why do these sensations arise? How they relate?
Although Anxiety and discouragement were very common psychological and emotional problems, since 2020 the number of people living with these sensations has been growing. We live in a world that is increasingly complicated, hurried and full of insecurities. However, the solution to this problem cannot be massive medication.
If you live with anxiety and discouragement and want to solve the problem, you have come to the right article. Here we are not only going to define what anxiety and discouragement are and why they occur, but to try to find solutions based on psychological evidence and above all with real experience in consultation of more than 12 years.
Anxiety is one of the most unpleasant sensations that human beings experience. Is a state of generalized fear that makes us live on alert, as if what we fear could happen at any moment. It is common to feel anxiety when we have become accustomed to living with fear and insecurity, in relation to relationship breakups or some conflict that we fear, or in relation to health problems. In short: anxiety makes us feel that something negative and dangerous for you is going to happen at any moment.
In turn, anxiety leads us to ruminate and experience intrusive thoughts. We think non-stop about what we think is going to happen and we feel more and more exhausted and the fear grows.
If I asked you where in your body you feel anxiety, you would probably tell me in the chest or pit of your stomach. Depending on the person, sometimes it is felt in the stomach, it causes problems with gastritis or lack of appetite, anguish in the throat (which we calm only after a crying episode) or a headache. But why does it arise in the pit of the stomach in the first place?
Feeling anxious can be normal when we experience an event for which we are not prepared. A first day at work, facing an exam, a first date or a move can cause us anxiety. It is a temporary experience that does not pose a major problem. Difficulties arise when anxiety is too frequent, intense and long-lasting.
We feel anxiety in the pit of our stomach because, faced with that feeling of alert, we begin to breathe, completely unconsciously, quickly and superficially. Our diaphragm is a large muscle that serves as a bellows to help us breathe.
When we feel anxiety we barely inflate our lungs and breathe so shallow and fast that our own diaphragm crushes the pit of our stomach. This is why to overcome your anxiety it is essential to work on your respiratory mechanics. Resorting to anxiolytics (something increasingly common) is only a short-term remedy that usually makes a definitive solution difficult, since it relaxes the diaphragm and prevents you from learning to breathe fully. This is the first and most essential step when we begin to experience a process of change to solve anxiety permanently.
Now, why do we associate anxiety with discouragement? Anxiety is primarily fear, while discouragement is related to sadness. The relationship and explanation will help you discover what is happening to you in more depth.
Discouragement as a reaction to anxiety
Feeling discouraged is not exactly depression. Discouragement is an unpleasant experience, linked to sadness and also to laziness and demotivation. We feel a lack of spirit or meaning because our daily lives are exhausting, unstimulating, as if it were a spiral or vicious circle. What causes discouragement?
Discouragement is not a primary reaction. That is to say, discouragement is always a consequence of something else that has happened. There can be 3 reasons to feel discouraged:
7 keys to get out of anxiety and discouragement
The 7 keys that I am going to tell you are based on what people who have overcome their problems with anxiety and discouragement in a stable way have experienced. Although what happens outside affects us and conditions us (problems with our partner, work, etc.), the only thing you can work with is yourself, with your way of understanding and managing it. Everything else will happen from your own personal change. These are the 7 keys.
1. Work with anxiety as a priority
Anxiety is a borderline feeling. It affects us in all areas of our lives. When we reduce its intensity, frequency and duration, everything becomes much easier. It is important that learning to manage anxiety is your main objective. The solutions are not in external remedies, but in your way of breathing and managing your emotions.
2. Respiratory mechanics
Learn to breathe fully It will give you more peace of mind, energy, and above all it will help you reduce intrusive thoughts. To achieve this achievement you need patience, since it is a daily job. But… don’t you think that a daily job that will bear fruit for your entire life is better than an immediate and temporary remedy that makes the problem return the next day?
3. Manage your emotions
Anxiety is an intense fear that has become widespread. Learning to understand and manage your fears, insecurities, guilt or anguish is vital so that anxiety is reduced and you can live your daily life with more calm, acceptance and confidence. This learning is also related to your way of building self-esteem and relationships, as well as with your interpretations and belief system. Working with your emotional part is essential to solve what is happening to you.
Learning to communicate assertively will help you set limits regarding what you want, don’t want, can or can’t. Limits are a necessary part of our lives to feel well-being and improve our personal relationships. What prevents us setting limits is above all the fear of the other’s reaction (hence the importance of learning to understand and manage what you feel).
5. Belief system
Your belief system is related to what you interpret about what happens. But what you believe is not reality, but your subjective interpretation, also based on your fears and difficulties. Discover how your belief system works and overcome habitual limits It will help you know yourself and feel better.
6. Have support
The greatest difficulty we experience when we feel anxiety is loneliness, which is why it is so important have an expert company that supports you constantly and flexibly, every day, for any difficulty you have, in addition to weekly sessions and tools. The company will make you feel that change is possible.
7. Discouragement
It is also important not to leave discouragement aside, but apply practical changes that make you regain meaning in your daily life and generate well-being.
Solving anxiety and discouragement involves a delicate process, but it will bring benefits for your entire life. It’s about understanding yourself, knowing how to manage what you feel and making sure your emotions are for you instead of against you. And above all: may the change you experience be stable and always help you.
These 7 keys are what we live in a process of personal change, which we live little by little, with your own reality, with company, in a practical and also profound way.
If this is what you want to achieve, write to me to schedule a first session. In that session we will be able to delve deeper into your situation and take the first steps within a constant, flexible and practical process so that you achieve it 100%. Many encouragements for that.
