Overcoming Stress and Anxiety – You Need to Change Only 1 Thing!
Overcoming Stress and Anxiety – Overwelming, and Relaxation Feels Impossible?
Overcoming stress and anxiety can be overwhelming… It may seem like a big deal at first, and it may become more and more exhausting over time. There are countless stress relief techniques, relaxation exercises recommended everywhere, months-long challanges to try, long lists to achieve it… but it just seems to worsen your feelings? This was my experience for years until I found one simple change that truly worked.
If you are here, you have already made the first step toward mental well-being by seeking solutions. What if there was just one simple shift? You can calm your heart with one thing and overcome stress and anxiety.
I believe in simplicity and consistency. Let me share what I have learned and successfully applied! It may seem easy, but it requires daily effort. This is the hardest part in the beginning. The challenge is in making it a habit, but once you do, everything transforms.
The One Thing You Need to Change and Why It Works
In order to overcome stress and anxiety you need you change your mindset: be present.
- Stress rooted in the past.
- Worrying about the future causes anxiety.
- The present moment is where you free yourself from both.
I think, practicing mindfulnes is the key in being present, in order to overcoming stress and anxiety. Being present may sounds a bit like “nothing” or trivial, but it has definitely a much more complex effect. If you are always on alert, stressed, ready to react at any time (our evolutionary heritage), your body and mind can never rest and recharge. And if you always think about the most likely outcomes of the future and worry about events that will never happen – this is also the case. Your mind and soul do not rest.
The past and the future are in this way familiar to you – you got used to these states, even if they are not comfortable. But the present moment is a kind of unknown. And unknown things usually do not feel comfortable. You can train yourself, how to embrace the present, how to be comfortable in the unknown.
Being Present: The Secret to a Calmer Mind and an Open Heart
As soon as you focus on the present, the problems and worries of the past and future begin to fade. I’m not saying you should ignore your problems, but rather to step away from them for a while. This is how you can calm your nervous system.
There are many mindfulness practices, stress-relief techniques to be more present in the moment – for me, meditation works the best. Through meditation, I can create some emotional distance as well.
For me, meditation and mindfulness practice means to let go of my feelings. This is how I do it – you won’t need anything, just some time: 2 minutes, 5 minutes, or as much as you want.
A Simple Meditation Practice to Be More Present
- Sit comfortably and close your eyes
- Bring your awareness to your physical body. Where your clothes touch it, where are your feet, try to feel your hair, and so on. Try consciously to direct your focus on these physical sensations, and only these.
- Next, expand your awareness to the space around you. Sense the room, the sounds, and the air around you.
- If you catch yourself that your mind wanders, just make a notice and redirect your thoughts back to their original task.
- If you feel ready, open your eyes and take in your surroundings. And that’s it!
If you often find yourself wandering – don’t worry, and don’t even think that you can’t meditate. Don’t stress about doing it perfectly. It’s just a matter of a little practice, and your thoughts will wander less and less often, for shorter periods of time. But, this is just a practice, a play, let’s see, how to apply the feeling of being present in your everyday life.
Overcoming Stress and Anxiety in Daily Life Through Mindfulness
Being present isn’t just the meditation — it’s a tool for everyday stress relief. Here’s how you can apply it:
Basics:
So the basis of daily stress management is to focus your attention to the present moment. As you practice through meditation, being present means noticing the world around yourself – what is happening, feel the smells, the temperature of the space where you are, hear the sounds – just stop for a second, and experience it.
In tough moments:
When your emotions overwhelm you – just stop for a second. Take yourself out of your emotions for a moment. Inhale deep, notice the air entering your lungs, notice your surroundings – magically the problem you worried about will feel to be a little less important.
During conflicts:
As in the meditation, we can set aside our feelings for a second, and see the situation from a distance. Only with calm mind and open heart is possible to truly understand the other, and find solution for the situation.
Practicing gratitude:
During the day stop your train of thoughts, and you take stock of how much there is around you to be grateful for. You will definitely find 1-2 things even in the worst circumstances, like having a place to sleep, something to eat, or something similar that seems like a small thing.
Being grateful for something every day can have a big effect on our emotional resilience. This only thing can shift your mindset over time for the better. I classify gratitude as consciously being present in the moment, because here we stop and break away for a moment from the constant rush to get better, more, or worry about it.
Make mindfulness a daily habit!
Every minute, whenever this thought comes to mind, stop for a moment and feel to be present. Over time, it will become natural and more often. Slowly your body and mind will learn to focus more on the present, and not worry about the future, not stress constantly about something. And in the long term, it will lead to overcoming stress and anxiety, to a mental well-being.
If you succeeded to calm your mind – you just released a lot of your energy to create. Shifting your mindset can not only reduce stress but also help you achieve your goals. If you’re interested, check out my guide on 7 Proven Strategies to Achieve Your Goals.
A Shortcut to Managing Daily Stress – My Experience with the Silva Method
Where I live, a few years ago there was quite a huge interest in the Silva mind control method. So I decided to take the 4 days long course.
Best experience of my life! I mean, I have been to many courses already, few of them gave me a life-changing experience. But THIS was the only one, where I felt so powerful during the course as well. They teach a kind of meditation, with a slightly different approach. As you learn how to use your brain better, you can use it also for overcoming stress and anxiety, it works really well.
Here is a short summary of the mind control method:
The method is based on the functioning of brain waves, and how can we use it more effectively. They teach many techniques, like bettering memory, techniques to sleep better, finding lost objects easily, healing our own body or someone else’s disease, or even techniques to achieve goals. And many more. The best thing, you can use any technique for anything, only your imagination sets the limits – but you can improve your imagination as well. It is also a great technique for meditation.
The course worked well for me, because I got many techniques ready-made, and there were other people attending this live course – for me this way it was more intense.
Conclusion: definitely recommended!
Takeaway
My solution for overcoming stress and anxiety is being present in the moment. Because everything in the world exists just now, and everything that we worry about, exists only in our head.
My method to be present is meditation – to sense what is the world and how small we are in it. We can train our brain to become more conscious. To get away from our emotions for a while. Only you can get yourself out of your emotional space – change comes from inside.
Practice consciousness (=being present) in your everyday life, if you catch yourself to worry, stop for a second. You can change your feelings to gratitude, love. Free yourself!
And let me know, if this was helpful. And let me know, what helped you to manage daily stress?
Pin it for later:
