Thursday, November 6, 2014

Past, Present or Future? Coping With Anxiety Part 4

No one likes anxiety. People come to my office all day looking for ways to decrease anxiety; yet there's one thing guaranteed to cause anxiety and we all do it all the time: thinking about the future or the past.

It is one of the most sure-fired ways to elevate your anxiety, sometimes to the point of a panic attack, and people do it all day long.

When thinking about the past we are almost always either reviewing negative events we wish had gone differently, remembering mistakes we made, or recalling something we used to have that we don't have anymore. When we think about the future, again we are usually worrying about something bad happening, or wishing for something positive to happen. Here's the problem: we are powerless in both the past and the future - they are memories and fantasies which we can do nothing to change. All our power lies in the present moment.

So what do we do to decrease anxiety? We can't take any action in the past or the future: they are just memories or fantasies. However, we can take action in the present, and taking action is what decreases our anxiety and increases our feelings of being empowered. When you find your mind going into the past or future, come back to the present. Reorient yourself by focusing on your breath, noticing where  you are, who is around you and what's going on. Then, ask yourself what you need right now in order to feel more empowered and peaceful.