Mindful Mental Health: Finding Freedom from Anxiety

Almost everyone 10 years back or now suffers from anxiety in their fast-paced and over-connected life. For many, it is an unwanted visitor, a silent companion that befriends their still moments with apprehensions of tomorrow, insecurities and scepticism.

Anxiety does not just hurt a person in the head; it negatively impacts relationships, productivity, and quality of life. But mindfulness is a kind of soft power through which the very needs we perceive can smoothly make their transitions from anxiety.

The key of calming the mind and alleviating the grasp of anxiety is more than an instant remedy; it is a practice based on a mentality that develops resilience as well as internal peace. The journey towards mindful mental health reminds us to be present, to embrace the little things, and gives back our agency to choose how we feel.

Anxiety Explained: Thinking/Brain Anxiety

Apart from the fact that it protects Nervously anxiety is a natural response to stress. It brings us awareness of danger and responds with the body having a fight or flight response. Yet when anxiety is chronic, persistent or seems to erupt out of the blue, it can quickly become inescapable. In this case, our thoughts race, body tightens and we loop in worry.

Mindfulness gives a way to get out of that loop, and to note these feelings from a place of non-judgmental observation. Mindfulness teaches us that anxiety is often a by-product of fear related to the unknown or things we cannot control (with good reason) and it gives us tools to redirect our minds, bringing our focus back on what is real and happening now.

Living in the Moment: The Strength of Present

Mindfulness is basically about living in the moment, and one of its golden rules. It is good to remind ourselves that anxiety has a tendency to drag our thoughts forward in time, and the further we travel into the future the larger our fears around what might happen grow.

Mindfulness allows us the opportunity to return to what is happening in this very moment, and drown out the mind attempting to ruminate on what we are unsure about. Things like controlled breathing or grounding activities are easy initial ideas.

Taking deeper, slower breaths, being mindful of how you inhale and exhale gives your brain the message that there is no danger in the immediate surroundings. And just this little engagement of being tends to settle the nervous system and provide immediate respite from anxious thinking.

Take a Breather: A Pathway to Peace

It is a habit of mindfulness that helps bring the mind back to a place of calm. If anxiety sets in, we can use breathing exercises to slow down from those quick, shallow breaths that trigger with stress.

Give this a go: find a comfortable position either sitting or lying down, close your eyes and take a gentle, deep breath in through your nose allowing those lungs to expand.

Pause it for a sec, and then gently breathe out through your mouth. Repeat this a few times giving yourself room to stay with the rhythm of your breath. All of this just brings the front part of the brain, which is likely worrying about something, back into a slower, more rhythmic tempo.

Somatic Sensory Awareness: Letting Go of Tension And Anxiety

Anxiety can even present as an increased muscle tension, a headache or restlessness. These feelings need to be released from the physical body and this is why Body Awareness practices can be some of the most powerful work available.

An example of this can be progressive muscle relaxation, which is tensing and relaxing each muscle group from head to toe over a period of time to release tension that has built up.

Notice the sensations in each part of your body, identifying where anxiety might be trapped as you scan through each area. Not only does this practice release physical tension, it promotes increased consciousness of how the mind and body connect.

Mindfulness Meditation: Watching Thoughts Instead of Listening

Mindfulness meditation is one of those main pillars from which we can tackle anxiety. It instructs us to watch the wheels turning in our heads, without getting caught up in them. A few minutes of meditation every day at the same time, helps develop an inner peace that grows and reinforces over time against anxiety.

Sit in a comfortable position, close your eyes and pay attention to your breath. Whenever thoughts come up, recognize them without any judgment and slowly turn your focus back to the breath.

Eventually, you will become more skilled at letting anxious thoughts go by without attaching to any of them, thus liberating yourself through freedom from their hold on your mind.

Establishing a Habit: Mindfulness is Something You Do Every Day

One-time practices may help assuage acute anxiety, but to veritably mitigate the control of anxiety, mindfulness needs to be a regular practice in life.

The little things done repeatedly add up. For example, spend five minutes mindfully breathing in the morning, practice body awareness while at your desk at work, or meditate for a few minutes before going to sleep.

And when mindfulness is practiced regularly, it becomes an instinctive reaction to stress. In time though, you will realize that even in the worst panic attacks you have tools readily available to ground yourself and ease your mind.

Embracing Self-Compassion

Mindfulness at its core rests on a foundation of compassion and kindness — for others but equally, if not more important, ourselves. When anxiety kicks in, our minds tend to become much more self-critical and exacerbate what we are feeling by implying that we have messed up because we are not comfortable.

By practicing self-compassion we are able to allow our feelings without judgment. When experiencing anxiety, lightly tell yourself that this is OK. So give yourself the same compassion and time you would a friend, allow for imperfection and weakness.

The third principle is self-compassion — in which we learn to be gentler with ourselves and alter how we react to anxiety.

Wrapping Up: Freedom Is Found in the Now

Anxiety-free does not equal never having anxious thoughts again. Rather, it is creating an arsenal of mindfulness practices that will allow us to move through each one with ease and grace.

When we are immersed in the present, we let go of our concern with what has yet to happen, and stay anchored in whatever is now. Mindful mental health is a path that allows us to quiet our minds, take control of anxiety, and allow serenity into our lives again with every conscious breath.

Mindfulness gives us the power to respond rather than react to anxiety, allowing us to reclaim our agency, experience simplicity in serenity, and thereby live more freely.