CBT Anxiety Technique 1: Focus on the feelings and they will change.

Feelings are like water. They are fluid and change constantly. If you feel yourself getting worked up and anxious over a perceived feeling you may feel in the future. Bring your attention to the feeling that you will feel once you start feeling better again.

Keep a journal and write those feelings down. Let’s say your getting nervous about a presentation your about to give. Your journal may look like this.

“I feel somewhat nervous, and I know it is natural. When these feelings change I can expect to feel very calm and level headed once again.”

Feelings will always change and shift. Just remembering this fact alone will help. always shift, and even just remembering that is useful.

CBT Anxiety Technique 2: Chew it over a while and then act normal.

Anxiety is very much a survival response and not a mental health disorder or illness. It is a response however that can go wrong. It may at this point hinder an individual (links to individual therapy on website) instead of helping. A way to train anxiety is to be selective and ‘behave’ is to speak to it or “call it in”. “Thank you anxiety but right now your not needed. Things are going to well for me to stop and create any unnecessary drama.”

If your able to take a different approach and stay calm then the anxiety fades away. A few examples are the following:

• Talk in a soft and calm voice.
• Smile
• Breathe very deeply
• Have your body posture open.

Adopting all three behaviors would be ideal but even if you just do one you will see that your less anxious and stressed out. We send a message to our nervous system that lets it know there is no real threat. If there was you wouldn’t be smiling, talking normal and taking long breaths.

CBT Anxiety Technique 3: Catching the assumptions and chasing down a logical conclusion.

If we find ourselves anxious about something it’s because we are fearful of the consequences. Do we even really know what that consequence is?

If I am afraid of attending a party I might say to myself, “What consequences do I now fear?”

• I might hear myself say back “I fear new people and meeting them.”
• What is the consequence of this? “What if they don’t like me?”
• What is the perceived consequence of that? “I will feel upset.”
• So what’s the next consequence of getting upset? “Then others may not like me.”

So on and so on. Eventually you shift into acceptance that all is well. You can’t keep running in fear. This works well with individuals, teens, and couples.

So what are the main points to takeaway here?:

1. Strong feelings do and can shape our thoughts. We can be intentional and directly help to uplift ourselves and stay calm.
2. Work to reframe thoughts and this can be extremely useful.
3. Thoughts are always changing.
4. We can challenge the fear by telling ourself a different story.
5. Finally, we can learn to catch the underlying assumptions by following logical conclusions.

If you suffer from anxiety and feel this article is helpful then learn more about my approach to therapy. Let’s get started placing you on a peaceful path.