Five creative ways to cope with Anxiety

Forty million adults in the US have to deal with anxiety. Surprisingly, only 37% of them receive proper treatment.

You can use many effective ways to cope with anxiety, including taking medication, deep breaths, and listening to music.

However, the above methods may not be effective in solving your anxiety issue, or they may not be fun.

Using an Emotional Support Animal (ESA)

One fun method you can use to manage anxiety is an Emotional Support Animal (ESA). An ESA is an animal that provides comfort to its owner. The main difference between an ESA and a pet is that a therapist prescribes an ESA. It means an ESA is acceptable even in places that prohibit pets. ESAs also differ from service animals because they do not receive specialist training to help the owner deal with some disabilities, such as a guide dog.

ESA helps you deal with anxiety issues by providing emotional comfort. They are a source of love, affection, and companionship. You are likely to be happier and healthier around ESA because they stimulate the release of oxytocin and reduces anxiety. Oxytocin improves feelings of social bonding while reducing anxiety and helps you relax, leading to better mental health.

Examples of the most popular ESA include:

• Dogs
• Cats
• Ducks

2. Use Your Brain to Cope with Anxiety

You might have heard that your mind is the most powerful object you could have. It is why you have anxiety, but you use it positively to help fight anxiety. When facing anxiety attacks, you have to use your mind’s broad scope of imagination to fight it off and restore calm.

Under normal circumstances, our brains have a negative bias. It is an instinctual reaction that forces us to expect the worst possible outcome. Our brains remain alert in anticipation of the worst, and this helps us survive. It may help us survive, but constant anticipation of bad things only leads to anxiety. Train your brain to think positively.

Some of the ways your mind can reduce anxiety include:

Not being so hard on yourself

Using your imagination to take your mind to a place that brings feelings of safety and calm

Pay more attention to positive things and ignore negative ones.

3. Grounding

Sometimes it helps to have physical cues that will help you deal with your anxiety. Grounding utilizes your senses to isolate bad thoughts by distracting you from them. Ezcare.com experts recommend using grounding objects to focus on the present moment and stop worrying about the past or the future.

Grounding works by grabbing your sensory focus, leading to a sense of comfort and safety in the current environment. Your body produces adrenaline and cortisol during moments of distress that prepares it for a fight, flight, or freeze, leading to an anxiety attack. Grounding helps deal with that by focusing on the physical grounding objects instead of the mental objects causing anxiety.

You can use several grounding objects such as:

Breathing exercises

Holding, smelling, or listening to calming objects

Going to a room that you consider a safe place 

4. Hypnosis

No, this is not a magic trick, hypnosis really can help with anxiety! Hypnotherapy is a procedure that helps people learn how to relax in the face of their worst fears. It works best if you entirely focus your body and mind on the process.

For hypnotherapy to work, the hypnotist places you in a trance. When you are in hypnosis, you are intensely focused and relaxed while open to suggestions. Hire a hypnotist, he will bring up your issues involving anxiety and will use calming and encouraging words to recommend ways to deal with the anxiety.

After the session, the hypnotist will discuss your experience and progress. They will even suggest self-hypnosis techniques that you can use to help yourself, but only if you can handle it. 

5. Exercise

The connection between exercise and anxiety may not be apparent at first, but exercising can be a fun way to deal with anxiety once you connect the dots. Exercise is an activity that primarily helps improve physical health and fitness.

Regular exercises can help you cope with anxiety by releasing natural chemicals like endorphins that increase your feel-good factor and ease anxiety. Exercising may also improve your ability to deal with anxiety. An intense workout will reduce anxiety for hours, while regular sessions will reduce anxiety over time.

The best examples of exercises that are good at managing anxiety are consistent aerobic activities like walking, dancing, and biking.

Some of the fun ways you can deal with anxiety include grounding techniques, exercising, and hypnosis.