Coping with Anxiety: How To Deal With Change
Change can make any of us feel a certain level of anxiety. It’s one of the most common reasons people seek out anxiety counseling. Even positive changes can make us feel on edge or slightly fearful.
Here are some ways you can cope with your anxiety during times of change:
Anxiety Counseling can help with change by helping you:
1. Understand what emotional changes to expect during this change. It always helps to know what you’re getting into. When you know what to expect, the change doesn’t come as a surprise. It’s like seeing the trailer before you see the movie, or reading the table of contents before you start a book. It gives you a sense of what’s to come, so you feel prepared.
2. Get to know yourself better. Any kind of change can feel confusing. How do you keep track of yourself as change impacts your life? One way is to keep a journal, a private notebook where you write about your feelings. Of course, counseling is a great way to do this too!
3. Look for positive influences. This means someone whom you would consider a mentor, a good example, or someone to pattern yourself after. Role models are important because they set an example for you to follow. Think about the people who are positive influences in your life. They might be counselors, family members, teachers, leaders, or famous people you will never meet but whom you admire just the same.
4. Practice thinking positively towards yourself. It is a sign of strong self-esteem. It means that you know you matter, and that you value your ability to think things through. Thinking for yourself means that you ask questions, rather than just accepting what people tell you about how you should feel.
Need help setting boundaries around this? Counseling often helps you learn to set those healthy boundaries so you don’t get caught up in the negativity of others.
5. Learn to be assertive. Assertive behavior is another sign of self-esteem. It usually means that a person values him- or herself. Assertiveness is standing up for yourself and protecting your own interests. One of our favorite skills to teach our counseling clients is the DBT skill: DEARMAN - It’s easy to learn and easy to use,
6.Learn to present yourself with confidence. Here is one way to develop confidence. First, make a list of at least five things you do well. Then make a list of at least five things you don’t do very well. Choose something to do from the first list every day. This will make you feel good about yourself. Then, when you’re feeling good, do something from the second list. You will see that the way you feel about yourself at the moment can greatly affect how you perform.
During counseling, we can help you identify self-defeating thoughts and teach you you how to change them.
7. Fall back on what you believe in (your foundational self). Review and remind yourself what you believe in, what you value in life. This is a big part of Acceptance & Commitment Therapy - when we live a life within our values, it can significantly decrease anxiety, depression and other unwanted thoughts and feelings.
To see how we can help, please contact us.
Or for more information, please visit: Anxiety Counseling