How to tackle anxiety proactively

Sometimes I wish I had a magic wand, one that I could wave in front of someone and watch as they turn into the person they want to be. You see, as a hypnotherapist, people often book an appointment with the expectation that I’ll talk them into a trace, reprogramme their brain, and they will awaken with their problem removed and a new lease of life added.  As I write this, I have images of removing a file from a filing cabinet and slotting a new one in its place.

My wish, however, is fleeting; this is not something I dream of being able to do. Every aspect of you comes from your previous experiences. When you speak with a therapist, you take your experiences, process them, and integrate them into your life so you can manage the negative consequences today, in a different way. The processing and integrating can take time, months, years, even.

So, whilst you have sessions with your therapist and your brain works on in the background, developing and adapting, you will find positivity from a proactive approach to your daily struggles.

Focus your mind with meditation or hypnosis

When we strengthen our body through fitness, training the brain is regularly left out. It is so common to start with the shoulders and move down through the body, covering every muscle group to the toes. The brain is an important area that needs to be strengthened through training. Meditation and hypnosis are both forms of brain training you can use to strengthen your mind so you can take more control of your thoughts and actions. They both help you find a focused state of mind, but hypnosis tends to focus on a solution, whilst meditation is an exercise to clear the mind.

I’m sure primitive humans spent much of their time in a meditative state of mind, when crafting tools or clothes, when foraging or warming themselves by a fire. However, as a formal practice, it likely began in India around 3,500 years ago. Buddha viewed meditation as the path to enlightenment 2,500 years ago. Buddhist meditation practices encourage you to closely observe your mind and body, noticing the continual arising and passing of feelings to acknowledge the pointlessness of pursuing them.

Taoism, Chinese teachings, Christian, Jewish, and Islamic Mysticism all use forms of meditation as tools for connection. Western society adopted meditation as a wellness practice. The purpose in this context is to enhance well-being through feeling in control of your thoughts and reactions. The school of thought is that with repeated practice, you recover from emotional dysregulation and feel comfortable and in control. The longer you can meditate for, the better. A practising monk will spend eight hours of his day focusing on meditation. However, with a busy lifestyle, a short ten-minute meditation each morning is enough to make a great difference to your day.

While meditation often clears the mind and builds awareness, hypnosis helps you focus with intention. It’s more than being ‘talked into a trance’. It is a tool you can learn to use, one that puts you at the centre of your own healing so you can make positive changes from the inside out.

Exercise

In our human body, we have something known as the HPA axis. The 'H' stands for hypothalamus and 'P' the pituitary gland, both found just above your brain stem. The 'A' stands for adrenal glands, which are found on top of your kidneys. The role that the HPA axis gets the most credit for is the part it plays in the body’s reaction to stress.

Dysregulation in the HPA axis might contribute to depression and anxiety. Studies demonstrate that voluntary exercise alters the release of hormones from the hypothalamus and the pituitary gland, which positively alters stress reactivity and anxiety.

I prefer the term 'movement' to 'exercise'. Your body expects and likes movement, you don’t need to do anything intense. Stretching and walking are adequate. Many gyms have classes which make the process straightforward as the instructor creates the workout for you. Many fitness instructors and yoga teachers have free classes on YouTube, which relieves financial restrictions and gives variety. Some people who find commitment the biggest challenge carve out the space in their diary and actually write it in, so they feel more accountable to themselves.

Journal 

Journaling involves the writing down of your thoughts, feelings and experiences on a regular basis. Consider it an emotional download diary. Studies show that when people journal about a specific traumatic event with a focus on the emotional expression and cognitive processing, it facilitates growth.

Focusing on negative emotional expression alone can worsen symptoms. The brain can take time to interpret, process and integrate experiences. When you journal, it helps this process. Experiences that may take a long time to work through integrate sooner than may have been the case without any form of expression.  

Seek support

Sometimes it feels as though there is no support, and many people go to the GP and find that they hit a brick wall. The first point of call should always be your GP, but if you do not get the support you need, start searching elsewhere.

Once you find one avenue of support, it can begin the snowball effect. You’ll learn about another, then another two, and so on. Eventually, you’ll find yourself surrounded by a network of support. Social support is a powerful tool for recovery. Try support groups, support clubs, coffee meets – many host both in-person and virtual groups, so you can pick what feels most comfortable for you.

Evolution didn’t design us for inboxes, traffic jams or emotionally numbing TV at the end of a long day. We evolved in small, connected groups, moving our bodies regularly, while focusing on meaningful tasks and responding in real-time to the environment.

Many of the struggles we face today – anxiety, low mood, emotional dysregulation, for example – make more sense when viewed through this lens. And the tools we’ve explored here: movement, meditation, journaling, social support, and hypnotherapy, are ways to remember what it is to be human.

As a hypnotherapist, I don’t offer a magic wand. I offer space: space for your nervous system to settle, space for your story to be heard, and space for you to become the person you already are beneath the stress. Hypnotherapy is a ritual of reconnection and a way to gently rewrite patterns that no longer serve you, from a place of agency and deep inner knowing.

Healing doesn’t always look like dramatic breakthroughs. Sometimes, it looks like creating small moments of calm, over and over, until one day you realise, you’re not just surviving anymore. You’re living with intention.

References 

• Anderson, E.H. and Shivakumar, G., 2013. Effects of exercise and physical activity on anxiety. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 4, p.27.
• Ullrich, P.M. and Lutgendorf, S.K., 2002. Journaling about stressful events: Effects of cognitive processing and emotional expression. Annals of Behavioural Medicine, 24(3), pp.244-250.