Life has never been busier.

With technological advances, life was supposed to get easier, less stressful and provide more free time.

Not so much!

For many people, a lack of time is a primary complaint as we lead busy, hectic lives that commonly involve going to work or school, raising kids, paying bills, running a household, etc.

And with all of this mayhem going on, it’s not surprising that many people struggle with stress and anxiety that can often feel overwhelming.

RESOURCES & LINKS:

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Effects of Acute Aerobic Exercise: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02701367.2004.10609148

How Remembering the Past Biases Forecasts of the Future: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2005.01585.x

The effect of mindfulness meditation training: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0165178116308472

Neural correlates of mindfulness meditation-related anxiety relief: https://academic.oup.com/scan/article/9/6/751/1664700

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So, we all know life is busy.

And the primary goal for most of us, if we can’t do much less, is to attempt to relax and enjoy the process as much as possible.

As you’re aware, this is no easy task.

And to compound matters, we are all doing this with a 200,000-year-old brain.

Why does that matter?

Because the human brain’s primary mission isn’t to keep us calm and cool under pressure while we lead full, busy lives.

Instead, the brain is focused on keeping us safe.

And to be fair, it has done a pretty, darn good job for hundreds of thousands of years as we continue to evolve as the homo sapiens species.

Now, for the downside.

For the last 50,000 years, there have been no sabre tooth tigers to outrun or other physical threats to contend with consistently.

Of course, this is a good thing. Still, the brain is now focused on keeping us safe from many other things that aren’t life-threatening, such as financial difficulties, relationship issues, economic concerns, your children’s well-being, and even more rudimentary things, such as the number of likes your last Facebook post received.

Not surprisingly, with life being busier and more complex than ever, we are now more stressed and anxious than at any other time in human history.

There is good news, though.

You have at your disposal the most powerful computer on planet earth between your ears.

You need to get better at taking command of it and directing it to do what you want.

In today’s video, we will look at three ways to do that, and in part 2, we will follow up with four more.

The first strategy for calming an anxious mind is to change your physiology, which will help interrupt the pattern of shallow breathing and tight muscles.

And three of the best ways to do this are to take slower, deeper breaths, use a form of muscle relaxation, such as autogenic training or progressive muscle relaxation, and prioritizing exercise.

With all of these strategies, doing them a little bit during your day can be beneficial.

Second, it’s important to use the right self-talk.

One key form of self-talk is relaxing self-talk, which can help calm the mind, instead of filling the mind with more anxiety-provoking thoughts.

And a second key type is evidence-based self-talk.

With this form of self-talk, you will challenge anxious thoughts by looking at the evidence to the best of your knowledge.

Doing this will help logic prevail when coping with anxious thoughts, which will help keep you more calm.

Next, I’d encourage you to make problems the correct size.

Your brain’s job is to keep you safe, not to keep you calm.

Because of this, there is a tendency to make problems bigger than they deserve to be.

So, be mindful of catching anxious thoughts quickly, making them the correct size, assigning them the appropriate worry and then developing a plan to cope with the thought.

For my fourth and final strategy for today’s video, I encourage you to weave mindfulness into your day.

Mindfulness has proven physiological effects on calming the mind and body and has been shown to be effective, even in small doses.

Consider weaving mindfulness into different parts of your day.

It’s a very versatile technique that can be used whether sitting, standing, lying down, or even moving.

So, I hope you found these strategies helpful for calming an anxious mind.

If you’re experiencing challenges implementing these steps, don’t hesitate to contact us at @ https://www.drsullivan.ca/

Thank you for watching, and be sure to watch part 2 of my video about How To Cope With Feelings of Guilt, which will be released shortly.

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