Feeling Anxious? This Will Help

Here in the United States, Thanksgiving is almost upon us.

Like any holiday, this holiday is often filled with both joy and stress.

Research shows that the holiday season is actually a high-stress time for most people, and in the mental health field we often see an increase in symptoms for all disorders.

So this week I want to offer you a quick, real-time tool to reduce your stress and anxiety this holiday season.

But first, I want to explain what stress and anxiety are. These are words that are thrown around daily, but most people don't know what they actually mean.

Stress is the perception that you do not have the internal and/or external resources to face the challenges in your life.

Stress has two important factors: how you perceive your environment and how you perceive your resources.

If you perceive the environment as difficult that will be stressful. If you perceive yourself as less capable, that will be stressful.

As always, notice that I say?perceive.?This means that you have control over this perception.

Anxiety is the perception that negative things will happen in the future. It is the habit of worrying about the future. (Note this is a simplification for this exercise).

It is the habit of spending your time thinking about future issues and problems.

Notice that both anxiety and stress are based on perception and have a future bias.

So as you think about all the potential challenges and issues that may arise this week, and as you think about all of the things you have to do and how little time you have, notice how often your mind is shooting to the future.

This is a habit so prevalent most of us don't notice it. But the majority of people are going throughout their days living in the future in their minds.

And this future is not a nice future, it is a future in which all of the bad things happen.

We do this because we think if we can think of all the bad things that could happen, it will somehow prevent them from happening.

That's not how life works, and we know this.

So as you notice your mind wandering to create future projections of disaster, bring it back to this moment.

It's as simple as that. Just come back to the current moment. Look around, what do you see? Check-in with your body, are you tense?

I sometimes gently think "come back" when I notice my mind living in the future. It takes practice, but just like worrying this is a habit you can establish and it will become easier.

Because don't we all want to spend more time living our actual lives?

Wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving!

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