Many clients come to me asking how they can get rid of their anxiety. They often come with questions about why they are anxious in the first place, and are looking for answers about what anxiety is, where it comes from and how they can be free of it. The answer is that anxiety is a normal and natural part of being human, and we would be risking our lives if we got rid of it completely! But of course, for many of us, anxiety can become overwhelming, and start to take over our lives. The question can become, why do I have SO MUCH anxiety, and how can I return to more natural levels?

Why are humans anxious?

It can help to remember that anxiety has been around as long as humans have. Anxiety is essentially the experience of our ‘fight or flight’ responses. It is the feeling that we get when we cannot act on our natural impulses to rescue ourselves from a difficult or dangerous situation.

Imagine the people of the stone age. Back then, the thing that helped humans survive against all odds was their ability to watch out for danger. Our brains evolved to become amazing at looking out for trouble. In those days, this took the form of watching out for the big bears approaching the cave, or the risk of the fire going out. Early humans also learned that the best tactic to survive was to stay in a tribe, so they began to watch out for doing anything that would turn the tribe against them.

Modern anxiety

The modern world is so full of different stimuli, and we have thousands or millions of interactions or items to process every day with working, socialising, television, media and social media. Our brains are constantly trying to help us survive any of these that feel threatening, and they get stuck in a constant loop of worry, anxiety and stress. Our brains start waking us up at night to keep processing and worrying about everything that might go wrong, and everything that has happened before.

How to help anxiety

So what can we do? The first step is to notice how anxious you are. How do you feel, right now? Close, your eyes, take a deep breath and check in with yourself. Are your thoughts racing? Are your shoulders tight? How are you sleeping?

If you notice that you are anxious, there are several lifestyle changes you can make that will help you. Taking regular breaks, practicing breathing exercises or mindfulness, getting out into nature, exercise, and looking after your nutrition are just a few of the ways you can take better care of yourself. Take time to allow your brain to relax and your body to recharge.

Counselling For Anxiety

For many of us, though, our anxiety levels have been this way for a long time, and we have created patterns since childhood that are keeping our anxiety levels high. We might have learnt to hide how we really feel most of the time, even from ourselves. Perhaps we learnt to ignore issues or traumas we experienced in the hope that we would feel better in the end. Past difficulties that have not been worked through will keep your body in ‘fight or flight’ even if you try to relax from the modern world. Counselling will help you to take deeper steps to get to the roots of anxiety that is stuck, overwhelming, or beginning to take over your life. Get in touch with me for a free consultation if you want to talk about how I can help.