In the last few days I started to feel extreme anxiety. To the point that I was barely able to breathe properly.
I hadn't felt this intensity in such a long time.
I tried everything that has been working well so far:
- I tried breathwork
- I took my meditation pillow and sat on it for minutes upon minutes, but my mind could not stop racing
- I put on my favorite hypnosis video
- I tried to cleanse my energy with a rose quartz. Journaled. Cancelled on a friend date. Did my usual pilates.
Nothing effing worked!
For everyone who has experienced severe episodes of anxiety, you know very well how it feels like.
Sometimes you don't even know where it began. Did it start from your thoughts, or did your body just produce anxiety by itself? — leading to a vicious cycle where your mind affects your body and your body affects your mind.
The momentum of anxiety can become so big that every anxiety-relieving solution you've learned so far, is not effective anymore.
Now here's how we solve anxiety: You need to fight it with the same intensity it has right now.
When the momentum of your anxiety is still small, you can relieve it with some meditation, breathwork, even journaling or a walk down the forest.
However, when the momentum is huge, you simply cannot fight unless you combat it with the same intensity.
Here are some ways to combat severe anxiety:
- Boxing — put on your boxing gloves and hit the wall really hard. If you don't have boxing gloves, just punch something really hard, like a pillow in the wall, or anything.
- Go running — even for 15 minutes! Put on your shoes and run around your neighborhood. Don't worry about the pace. You can even go as slow as you can. Running combines many benefits: shaking your muscles, tense and release, and the intensity will take your attention away from the anxiety.
- Scream as hard as you can — I went to my basement and screamed the eff out of my anxiety. Scream from your core. Release your scream from the bottom of your belly even it it feels scary af. Don't resist it. If you don't have the right circumstances to scream and not get heard, scream into your pillow as hard as you can. It works so well.
- Shake your body — shake as hard as you can. Shake your limbs, your face, your head, your arms, legs, belly. Shaking is an excellent way to release trapped energy in your body.
- Ice cold shower — if you can bear to be under ice cold water for at least 30 seconds, you'll immediately feel the relief. Cold water activates the body's survival mode, making it increase the blood flow circulation. As a result your brain gets more oxygenated blood leading to more energy and mental clarity.
To conclude: you need to meet anxiety at its level and combat it at the level of the momentum it has right now.
After all, stopping a car that's going 3 km/h requires a whole different approach than stopping a car that's going 200 km/h.
Do you have other tips to stop anxiety? Let me know in the comments.
Until tomorrow,
Engji