Is your body stuck in alert mode? Do you feel on edge, waiting for something to go wrong? You are probably stuck in Freeze, Flight or Fight mode and your body is constantly scanning for the cause, therapy can help you identify the cause and how to manage your anxiety and alternative coping mechanisms too but there are some simple self regulating techniques, that can support you too.
1. Yawning – bringing on a yawn activates your parasympathetic nervous system, which helps to calm you. So if your feeling anxious, open your mouth wide and sound the letter ‘R’ while keeping your mouth open, try to repeat this 3 or 4 times and this should cause you to yawn.
2. Overthinking is common in anxiety, which only makes problems seem bigger, so try to break the ‘ruminating habit’, find distraction, it could be exercise, helping another person, making a call to a friend. Experiment find the one that works best for you.
3.Confirmation Bias, is where you tell yourself the negative such as ‘nothing ever works out for me’, when we do this our brain will gladly give you thoughts that confirms this belief. So try telling yourself the opposite to your negative, so using this example ‘I believe things can get better for me’, now your brain will start locating the evidence to support this positive thought. Even when things seem at their worst, there will be positive glimmers and they will be stored in your clever brain too and by doing this we start to shift this negative bias towards a positive one.
4.Humming, its not possible to have thoughts while humming, it gives you a space between your thoughts and your nervous system, helping you to self regulate.
These are just a few examples, more to follow in my next blog.
Kimberly
Lets Talk Counselling Therapy 
