By Elizabeth Herman
Feeling anxious and don’t know what to do? Try these anxiety coping mechanisms to reduce anxiety, feel better, and take back control of your life.
Do you worry about the future? Do you feel persistent fears about everyday situations? If so, you may have the beginnings of anxiety. This could develop into a disorder that needs attention.
Statistics show that anxiety disorders affect 18.1 percent of U.S. adults. But many cases of severe anxiety go unrecognized and untreated. Unaware of their own anxiety issues, these anxious people receive bad diagnoses or don't seek help at all. In total, the number reaches closer to about 30 percent.
Understanding the nature of the problem can be a first step to relaxing your mind. You can also explore techniques for lowering your anxiety. Experts like fifty-year meditator Bill Herman share insights about coping with anxiety.
What is anxiety?
International Art of Living teacher for 13 years and founder of SKY Schools, Bill helps others understand emotions. He says, “Anxiety comes from a lack of awareness. Because energy is low, fear and anxiety, and other negative emotions start to grip people’s minds. An anxiety coping mechanism is the ability to increase energy. Increasing energy in turn increases awareness. When awareness increases, anxiety goes to the background.”
Anxiety can manifest in your body, mind, and emotions. Some physical symptoms of anxiety include the following:
Sweating
Fast heart rate
Rapid breathing
Feeling tired
Low appetite
Dry mouth
Stomach-churning
How do breathing and meditation help to relieve anxiety?
Meditation allows you to rest from tiring thoughts. Breathing replenishes your oxygen. Practicing them both together, you can focus on two important sources of energy. That's how a regular practice of breathing meditation gives you resilience. Deep breathing brings you to the present moment and eliminates excessive worry.
Breathing meditation will do the following:
Boost energy: As Bill relates, “What happens to your awareness the next day after you haven’t slept one night? We all know that the answer is that awareness goes down. I’m not as good at dealing with people. I’m not as good at managing my mind or emotions. My decisions are not as fruitful when I haven’t slept one night. So, sleep is one of the basic sources of energy. We have others, like food, breath, and a calm, positive, meditative mind. So a coping mechanism for anxiety will bring energy levels up.”
Calm the mind. Breathing exercises and meditation can play a significant role in alleviating mental anxiety. Bill describes how the inside of each one of us can seem like the calm eye of a hurricane. "A hurricane is a storm, constructed of opposites, chaos on the outside, and a peaceful center on the inside. Though these opposites coexist, it’s the hurricane’s eye that appears lost. The drama of destruction is so engaging. It’s the same story with human beings. The core of inner peace appears unattainable when trapped in anxiety. The fact is, every hurricane has a peaceful center. In the depths of each human being lies a silent place of pure awareness."
Help you take better care of your health: With conscious breathing and meditation practices, you can manage panic, stress, and anxiety. Bill describes breath as "the connecting link between outer chaos and inner silence. Becoming more skillful with the breath is the secret to managing emotions."
Each person can start by knowing they can grow positive qualities in themselves. “The mind is like fertile soil,” says Bill, “and we have to choose which plants to grow by selecting the right seeds. If we plant what we want, and give the process time and attention, we can develop that quality.” Anxiety is one such option, but Bill's words empower others to choose mental health.
Tips for relieving anxiety
Here are some tips for relieving anxiety:
Know that you're the gardener of your mind. Become more aware of your power to create your life. As Bill states, "First, students and beginners need to know that they can be the gardener of their own mind. Unless you know that, you don’t even make an effort. The first thing you need to know is that it’s possible to develop any qualities that you want in yourself. Then, once you know that you would figure out, “Well, what am I going to pick for myself?”
Decide which positive qualities you want in yourself. For example, Bill chose to develop infinite patience and acceptance in his own life. But whatever seeds you decide to grow, give them time. The changes won't happen overnight. For instance, you might want to become more studious at school. Bill describes how Art of Living courses "teach children to increase focus ability. If they’re students in school, and they want to be able to focus better, then there’s a particular technique for that."
Stop believing in things that make you afraid, such as your own sense of being a victim. Bill says, "Some people pick strange things! Some people hold the conviction that they’re victims, for example. So they end up becoming victims because there’s the phrase, 'As one thinks, so one becomes.' The bible says something similar, 'As one sows, so will one reap.'"
Boost your energy levels. Techniques from the Art of Living can help you to feel more energetic and aware in daily life. “Anxiety dissolves when energy and awareness levels have risen,” says Bill. You'll see that as you take steps to increase energy, anxiety disappears in favor of awareness.
Stop overthinking situations, relationships, and circumstances. Bill discussed his personal experience with overthinking. "Before I started meditating, back in 1970, I used to be someone who thought too much. I would overthink things to death. That had to do with anxiety. I knew I had a problem, but once I started meditating, that completely disappeared. Now, I don't overthink things because through meditation, I’ve learned the laws of how the mind works. So I don’t get trapped in what I call stupid tendencies like overthinking and resisting things I don’t like. I don’t resist anything because I understand that what you resist will persist."
Practice self-care, including self-massage and dietary adjustments. The ancient healing tradition of Ayurveda offers individualized support for calming anxious minds. Bill recognizes that "There's no one fix-all. There's no one formula for everybody." So consult an Ayurvedic health professional and learn to use customized natural remedies.
What are some examples of techniques to relieve anxiety?
"SKY Breath Meditation is the centerpiece of the Art of Living program," says Bill. "It uses rhythmic breathing techniques to increase energy, clear stress and negative emotion."
Bhastrika. Three quick and invigorating rounds of Bhastrika pranayama (Bellows Breath) increases your energy. It also calms your mind with vigorous inhaling and exhaling.
Alternate nostril breathing. Whenever a panic attack approaches, you can start alternate nostril breathing. It’s a relaxation technique that will calm your physiology, thus calming your mind as well.
Slow yoga asanas. Practicing the physical postures of yoga provides energy and muscle relaxation that lasts. It only takes a few short minutes of practice to turn around your fears and make them disappear. For example, the warrior pose stimulates strength and confidence to face challenges.
Bill has a hopeful message about the prevalence of anxiety in today’s world. “Through the practice of meditation, I’ve learned how to manage my mind. There are certain skills to managing the mind that need to be addressed in order to cope with anxiety. The covid 19 pandemic has brought up so much anxiety in people. It’s one of the main words that people are using these days to describe their mental state. There’s an intellectual understanding of how to deal with anxiety. But the physiological tool of breathing is even more powerful than the intellectual. That’s one of the basic ideas here.”
Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, founder of Art of Living, puts it this way: “The head worries and the heart feels. They cannot function at the same time. When your feelings dominate, worry dissolves.”
To ease anxiety, tune in to Beyond Breath - A FREE Breath & Meditation Online Session With a Live Instructor. You’ll learn SKY Breath Meditation. It has helped millions of people around the world to move beyond their fears and find inner peace.
Elizabeth Herman is a long-time meditator, a trained yoga teacher, and a PhD in English, with concentrations in Rhetoric and Composition, and Literature. She offers writing support to clients, teaches locally, and volunteers for a better world.
