How To Regulate Anxiety At A Physiological, Motor And Cognitive Level
Surely you often think that you would like to know how anxiety works and what you can do to control it.
One of the psychological problems that psychologists see most frequently in consultation is anxiety. Specifically, people without serious mental health problems who are overwhelmed by anxiety
All human beings, or almost all, can suffer from a problem of this type in the course of their lives. And the most important thing I want you to know is that it is not about never being anxious or stressed, but that you are able to regulate anxiety But to do this, first we have to understand this psychological phenomenon.
I am going to explain to you in a few words what anxiety consists of and how we can ensure that it does not overwhelm us.
You have to know that anxiety It is an adaptive behavior in the face of a dangerous situation for your integrity or is new.
In a situation that involves danger, we instinctively respond in three possible ways: we escape, we fight or we remain as dead, blocked. The latter comes from our ancestors. When they were in front of a beast they appeared as if they were lifeless so that it would pass by and not attack them. This is the explanation of staying blocked in a situation that our brain interprets as dangerous
When something is new to us, anxiety causes us to become active, to be “on our toes.” In short, we are where we need to be, with all five senses.
How can we regulate anxiety so that it does not overwhelm us?
We can manage anxiety on three levels: physiological, motor and cognitive (thinking) levels.
On a physiological level
They are those signs that appear in anxiety, we have palpitations, sweating, tightness in the chest,…, a long etcetera of things that happen on a physical level when anxiety overwhelms us.
At the motor level
Regarding anxiety at a motor level, we feel very restless we cannot stop moving and stay still in one place.
On a cognitive level
Our brain is an extraordinary survival “machine” , not well-being. Therefore, what it does very well is anticipate negative things that may happen to us and ruminate on the negative things that have already happened to us. We are very often naturally in this state.
Well, when it comes to regulating anxiety, it is not about not going through this process, because our brain has the innate tendency to fall into this bias of giving more strength and importance to the negative, but about being aware of it and, to the extent that you know him, try to give greater value to the positive and not believe everything negative you think.
Several tips: what to do?
On a physiological level, well, with two fundamental tools. One is Jacobson’s progressive relaxation. It consists of tensing and relaxing the different parts of the body. As you train it, you will be able to relax when you are tense.
The other technique we have to regulate the level of physiological activation is deep breathing. When we feel anxious we hyperventilate ; We take short, shallow breaths. This means that we do not oxygenate ourselves properly.
To remedy this, what we have to do is something very easy: make longer and more prolonged inhalations and exhalations. With this we manage to regulate the activation level. The additional advantage it has is that you can do it at any time. No one will notice that you are breathing deeply.
At the motor level, another important key that psychologists constantly recommend regular practice of sport To the extent that you practice physical exercise, this will increase your well-being, and you will be able to considerably regulate anxiety.
As for what to do on a cognitive level, there is something to keep in mind. As we mentioned previously, the brain is a magnificent survival machine and, as such, it continually presents us with the negative. We have to learn to not give so much value to everything negative that we anticipate or remember, and to do this We have to focus our attention on what we have, not on what we lack
In this way we will be able to not give so much importance to all those negative thoughts that come to us easily. We have a lot of garbage thinking that should not be given greater importance.
To the extent that you are able to put these tools into practice, you will be able to see anxiety as an ally, and not as an enemy. And if you are able to value anxiety as an ally, you will be able to control it.
