Believe in the Beauty of Life -- How to Combat Anxiety and Stress

Hey Guys!

As a natural first step on my journey with this blog, I felt it was necessary to create this post about different ways and strategies to deal with anxiety and stress. As you may know, this topic is one of the reasons I decided to make this blog. Because we are all human, we will deal with anxiety and stress at some points in our lives. For a few of us, it can be an almost daily occurrence. By trial and error, I've compiled a list of ways that I combat anxiety and stress, and I feel that it's worth sharing. If I help at least one person, then I'll feel as if I've made a world of difference.

So before I begin discussing my strategies, we need to talk about the beauty of anxiety and stress and why it can sometimes be a good thing. At this point I'm sure some of you are thinking, How is there beauty in anxiety? How can something so horrible, be considered something positive? Well, I'm here to tell you, stress can be a positive thing. Stress is probably one of the biggest motivators out there. Whenever you're stressed, stop and think about why you are stressed. Chances are you're stressed over a project, work, family, or something of that nature. When you really think about it, we as humans tend to get stressed about the things we care about. Things we care about, will get your utmost attention, and we tend to want these things to be perfect. Behind all the negatives of stress, we can see that stress comes from a positive, supportive place. That's the beauty of stress, that we experience it because we have so much passion and compassion for someone or something. So next time you're feeling the side effects of stress, take a moment and think about the real reason you're stressing. Be proud that you have someone to care so much about. Be proud you have a job that you want to do your best at. Be proud that you will get an "A" on a hard assignment or project that you've spent so much time on. Believing in the beauty of stress will turn your life around.

1. Get out of the house!

When I start to feel anxiety, I tend to become super apathetic and mopey. Getting out of bed and getting out of the house always relieves a little bit of anxiety. Whether it's going for a drive, taking a walk, or going to the mall for a little retail therapy, leaving the house can do wonders against anxiety or stress. 

2. Keep your mind active and off of the anxiety or stress trigger. 

Watching a movie, reading a book, surfing the web, listening to music etc. are all good for distracting your mind away from the cause of the anxiety. This can sometimes be a challenge for me. It's hard to remove the cause of your anxiety from your thoughts long enough to become focused on a book or movie, but once you can, it will definitely stay out of your head for a while.

3. Meditation and breathing exercises.

For some people, emptying their mind of their stressor can be a wonderful help. Put on some soothing music, and try to focus on emptying all of your negative thoughts from your mind. Again, this is a challenge for me and probably for many others. If this doesn't work well for you, guided meditations and breathing exercises may be of some help, in which many of these can be found on youtube.

4. Talk to someone you trust.

It can sometimes be beneficial to talk to a family member or friend about your stress and anxiety. Chances are they have been through the same experience, and they may be able to provide some comfort during this dark time. Even if they aren't familiar with what you're going through, having an outsiders perspective can help to give you a new outlook, more than likely a positive one. If you feel as if you have no one to talk to, there's no shame in seeking out the advice of a therapist or medical professional. Stress and anxiety can potentially be very harmful to our health, so please take care of yourselves and seek out the proper help that you believe you need.

5. Take a step back from the situation and try to find the positives. 

As I mentioned previously, most stress and anxiety can be rooted in a positive place. Therefore, when I'm struggling with anxiety, I take a step away from the situation and figure out what is the root of the problem. I always ask myself this one very important question about my stressor: In six months, will this matter to me? In a year, two years, or even ten years, will any of this have made a substantial difference? Most of the time the answer is no. If I'm stressing over a big life decision, I tend to tell myself that things always have a way of working out. And to be honest.... they do! 

6. In the future, try to prevent anxiety and stress.

I know this may seem impossible, but it is actually an easy thing to avoid if you know what you tend to stress over. To keep myself from stressing over school work, I would make sure to give myself plenty of time to do my assignments. Start papers early, set time aside each day to do your homework, go to the library, and don't wait until the last day to study. Believe me, your future self will be thanking you for preventing stress. If you know that certain situations cause anxiety, try to avoid them as best you can. If you have anxiety over being in very busy and crowed areas, then try to go to those places at off times. Knowing what causes your anxiety and thinking about prevention is potentially the best way to deal with it. With that being said, anxiety and stress happens for a number of reasons, some of which are out of your control. Although it cannot be prevented, you can prepare yourself with ways to deal with the anxiety and stress.


Hopefully after reading you will be able to add a new technique to your arsenal against anxiety and stress. If you've found this helpful, please share that with me! I would love to know that I've been able to touch someones life through this blog!

Lots of Love,