A Brave Front
To many others , I may come across as someone full of confidence, bold and fearless. The truth is, I have been suffering from a generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), ever since I was a kid and I still do.
What Is Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)?
Anxiety is a feeling of unease and it comes in waves of worry or fear. It can be triggered by situations, work, past events or even people. Experiencing anxiety is a very normal part of life, however people with anxiety disorders go through frequent episodes of intense, excessive and persistent worry and fear about everyday situations.
Symptoms
People with anxiety disorders most commonly experience psychological and physical symptoms like:
- nervous, restless and tense
- sense of impending danger, panic or doom
- surge in heart rate
- rapid breathing or discomfort in breathing
- trembling
- insomnia
And the list goes on. Symptoms vary from person to person and for me the thing that affected me the most were the anxiety and panic attacks.
The Break Point
For anyone who never experienced an anxiety and panic attack before, imagine this:
“A tidal wave hits you, taking you under. At first you try holding your breath, but soon after a while, you no longer can. So you try desperately to breathe but the only thing you actually do is swallow water. Your vision becomes blurry and everything you see fades slowly into darkness…”
That’s how I felt, every single time.
Message To My Anxious Friends
Speaking from experience, anxiety never truly goes away. But, anxiety isn’t necessarily evil; I learnt from experience that anxiety can be endured, resisted and turned into something beautiful.
Emotional Design
If I were to tell you that you can design your emotions, would you believe it?
Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions
Through years of studying emotions, American psychologist Dr. Robert Plutchik proposed that there are eight primary emotions that serve as the foundation for all others: joy, sadness, acceptance, disgust, fear, anger, surprise, and anticipation.
From this initial Wheel of Emotion, you can observe that anxiety (‘apprehension’) falls under ‘fear’. Due to the complexities of emotions, the idea being that blending different emotions will create different levels of emotional response and intensities of that response.
So that was exactly what I did: I turned anxiety into something empowering.
Here are my 3 simple steps:
1. What Makes Your Tick
Understanding myself was the first step when it came to dealing with my anxiety. I paid close attention to my basic thoughts, feelings and behaviour; I soon discovered my anxiety triggers.
Triggers
A trigger in psychology is defined as a physical stimulus such as a smell, sound, or sight that triggers a certain emotion. It can also be a mental stimulus, most commonly, stress.
Awareness
By acknowledging the triggers that caused my anxiety, I was aware of my emotions and I started to plan ahead to avoid them. I then brainstormed on healthy coping mechanisms for preventive measures.
I kept a journal on the Notes app on my iPhone, turning my experiences into poems and short stories.
Find a convenient way which you are most comfortable to keep tabs of such triggers. The trick is to keep it simple and casual.
2. Create Clarity From Confusion
“Our breath is the password to enter into peace.”
An immediate measure that I deploy when I am overwhelmed with anxiety is breathing. Studies have shown that with mindful breathing, we can calm both our minds and bodies. By practicing one’s breath, an individual can take control of his/her anxiety.
To practice, I do 2 things regularly: yoga and breathing exercises.
Yoga
The word ‘Yoga’ is derived from the Sanskrit root ‘Yuj’, meaning ‘to join’ or ‘to yoke’ or ‘to unite’. Commonly, yoga is misunderstood as a fitness/therapy program filled with ‘stretching’ exercises only. However, this ancient practice synchronizes a vast library of movement patterns with controlled breathing to train the body.
Meditation
Before meditation apps like Calm and Headspace were invented, I was doing breathing and meditation exercises on my own, based on simple exercises I found on the internet. Now, access to guided & open-ended meditations is readily available, with adorable animated timers that make breathing exercises engaging and fun.
By using the breathing apparatus of the human body productively and efficiently regulating the respiration system, clarity, calmness and tranquility can be achieved.
3. Turn Fear Into Confidence
“I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.”
-Bruce Lee
Honestly, dealing with anxiety takes practice. How do I practice? I do HIIT.
High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)
High intensity interval training or HIIT is a form of cardio exercise done in short, intense bursts that aims to maximise athletic performance under conditions where the muscles are deprived of oxygen.
HIIT has shown to reduce anxiety significantly because working out trains up one’s tolerance to stress, literally. This practice has allowed me to build up a resilience, providing me with the physical and emotional capacity to deal with my anxiety.
I try and do this about 2 times a week, following a program called Les Mills Grit, a 30-minute result proven HIIT workout with work/rest intervals mixed in epic music soundtracks.
Conclusion
“Life doesn’t happen to you, it happens for you.” I really don’t know if that’s true. I’m just making a conscious choice to perceive challenges as something beneficial so that I can deal with them in the most productive way. You’ll come up with your own style. That’s part of the fun.
— Jim Carrey
Jim Carrey, my all-time favorite childhood actor, said this during a commencement speech he gave in 2014. His inspiring speech gave me the courage to take control of my life. Instead of serving my anxiety like a slave during my adolescent years, I freed myself through the embracement of my emotions. Now, I am its master and it serves me.
To anyone else out there who is seeking shelter from the rain of anxiety, waiting for the storm to pass, take it from me: it won’t.
Instead, learn to dance in the rain.