How to Reprogram Your Mind to Become Anxiety Free
Is your mind filled with anxiety? Maybe you’re suffering from sleepless nights and feeling nervous and upset all day. Perhaps you’re worrying all the time, imagining the worst-case scenario.
Maybe having an anxiety free mind sounds impossible. Maybe you think anxiety is helpful and necessary. That it helps you solve your problems.
But if you’re honest, what you really want is to relax and calm down. You want to be free of anxiety.
It is truly possible to become anxiety free – no matter what your situation is.
A few years ago, I was an anxious mess. A family situation had me in knots. I hardly ate, couldn’t sleep, and was consumed with worry all day. In the midst of my misery, I decided to do something about my anxiety. The journey to become anxiety free was worth it!
Here’s what I discovered needs to be done:
1. Don’t Believe Everything Your Mind Tells You!
It’s true! Thoughts are just thoughts! You don’t need to trust every one of them. Not all thoughts are equal.
2. Become Aware of Your Thoughts
This means pausing long enough to become mindful of the thoughts rolling around in your mind. Take a break from your whirlwind of thoughts. Stop long enough to sort out your thoughts and feelings. Identify the ones causing your anxiety.
3. Ask Yourself: Where Do These Thoughts Come From?
This is a reflective process that takes a bit of time but helps you understand the root of your thoughts. Thoughts come from a lifetime of experiences that have formed impressions or unconscious ideas about how life works and your place in the world. For example, individuals with anxiety might have unconscious thoughts like…
- I will always be a worrier.
- Life is unsafe and scary.
- Anxiety helps me cope with problems.
- I’ll never be able to calm down.
- Something must be wrong with me.
4. Identify Core Beliefs
Unconscious thoughts affect everything you do. They influence your thoughts, feelings, decisions and actions. Why? Because they form the foundational system of beliefs by which you live.
They are called core beliefs. For instance, someone living with the core belief that anxiety is the way to cope with problems, experiences a mind automatically filled with anxious thoughts and feelings when something happens.
An event could even be neutral but those of us with anxiety will interpret it as being negative and dangerous. While someone else operating from a different set of beliefs might interpret the same event as a positive opportunity.
5. Accept and Change Limiting Beliefs
Core beliefs become limiting beliefs when you trust and act on them. Hanging on to the core belief, for instance, that life is unsafe and scary, holds you back in life. Fear and anxiety control your thoughts, feelings, decisions and actions.
The key to reducing limiting beliefs that cause anxiety is to allow and accept them. Be aware of your limiting beliefs and decide to do something about the ones that cause anxious thoughts.
Remember: You don’t have to believe everything your mind tells you!
You always have a choice to change negative thoughts and limiting beliefs into positive thoughts and empowering beliefs.
Here’s How…
Replace old beliefs with new beliefs. For instance, someone with the old belief, “I will never be able to calm down,” could change it to the new belief, “I can calm down. I can do what it takes to calm down.”
Repeat the new belief to yourself every day! Even several times a day. Make it a habit. This will start to reprogram your mind and create new neural pathways in your brain.
You can reprogram your mind and become anxiety free!
I hope you can follow these 5 steps to become aware of your limiting beliefs, change them to new empowering beliefs and to repeat them often. Take this path to become anxiety free.
However, if you are truly struggling with anxiety that keeps you nervous and troubled, watch my FREE 10 minute video on How to Stop Anxiety to learn the exact 3 steps you can take to Become Anxiety Free.
Let’s Have a Conversation:
How do you know you are anxious about something? What causes you to worry? Do you have specific triggers? Are they tangible or are they just thoughts?
Tags Reducing Stress
Okay, I’ve tried to find out why I worry about someone dying and leaving me alone. It hasn’t happened to me, so I can’t find a reason for my fear. I’m getting better about not thinking about it.
Roxanne:
Thanks for your honest input. Imagining the future is certainly a source of anxiety. This could be assuming the worst? I’m encouraged that you’re getting better at not allowing these thoughts to consume you. Let me know if I can help. https://janekcoaching.com/schedule-a-call/ 30-minute free consultation. Sincerely. Jane Kennard
(1) Accept that some degree of anxiety or stress is natural–it signals things to us.
(2) 20 years ago, I began taking an anxiety medication. I resisted it at first, telling my
doctor, “I have to stop lawyering. It’s too much stress for me.” He asked, “What is the
biggest stressor?” and I responded, “Suppressing. I have to be cool, calm and collected when reciting child abuse like a weather report and being cordial with a colleague I’d rather throw down the stairs.” An anxiety med (Paxil) was suggested. At first, I resisted: “I don’t want to throw a pill at the problem.” He had tears in his eyes, telling me about his anxiety and medication to manage it. Wow. I still cry, I still get angry, I still rage at the machine (how inept the legal system is), but I am a superb lawyer today, managing adeptly the crises my clients bring without being overwhelmed with compassion fatigue. So—CONSIDER not feeling ashamed of trying a medication. Some of us just have more adrenaline coursing through us than we need.
(3) Go to YouTube and type in: guided meditations for anxiety, calming meditations for
sleep—phrases like that. I found a voice that is perfect for me (thanks, Michael Sealy).
After a particularly toxic day — or even as an afternoon respite — closing my eyes and
listening to these are life-saving. And free! I have too much “busy brain” to try to meditate on my own. I need these soothing voices walking me through the forest or (one of my
favorites) floating up to the stars.
Agreed! My attempts to become anxiety-free just caused more anxiety. Eventually I agreed to take medication after many years of resisting it. For me it was a temporary aid, and now I’m medication free as I understand myself better today. I’ve accepted that anxiety will always be with me to some degree. I just have to be mindful to not let it consume me.
Joan: I love what you’re saying here about how your journey progressed with clarity about how brains work. Acceptance and/or surrender is a huge piece of the puzzle as well. Thanks for your contribution to the conversation.
Catherine: Thanks for sharing these insights about meds and the helpfulness of meditation. So many of us have “busy brains”. I love your honesty and clarity about what is helping you manage anxiety. You are valued and appreciated!
I thought this program was to be about reprogram your mind. It was not at all about that. All she talked about was balance and check with your doctor. She said a whole lot of Um’s over and over. She needs more information and must learn to speak distinctly without slurs and um’s