How To Rewire Your Anxious Brain

How Does Anxiety Affect Different Aspects Of Your Life

Anxiety can wreak havoc on your life in a variety of ways. It can cause a disruption in sleep, often a consequence of racing or nagging negative thoughts. It can leave you with trouble focusing on what you need to focus on. Instead, your mind is glued to thoughts of the past or the future. Along the same lines, anxiety can lead to forgetfulness. When your brain is hyper-alert and consumed with fear, its easy for even important things to slip your mind.

Anxiety can lower your immune system, as it takes a toll on your whole body. This is because when youre anxious, your cortisol production increases, which can take energy away from the bodys immune response. As a result, many people with anxiety get sick more often. Lowered self-confidence is another common effect of anxiety disorders, as it can lead to you doubting yourself and your ability to manage everyday situations.

Because of anxietys impact on the entire body, it can lead to physical health issues. If you have an anxiety disorder, its common to experience digestive issues such as loss of appetite, diarrhea nausea, and stomach cramps. It can cause headaches as well as joint pain, back pain, and general muscle tension. Furthermore, excessive anxiety can raise your blood pressure and heart rate, causing cardiovascular issues that increase your risk of stroke and heart attack.

Common Roadblocks And How To Overcome Them

There are a couple of reasons why more people dont utilize their brains neuroplasticity for healing themselves of anxiety. First of all, the majority of the population doesnt realize this is an option. The commonly known solutions for anxiety disorders are medication and CBT.

Furthermore, the study of neuroplasticity is relatively new. Thus, many people who know about it lack the confidence that they can use it to help themselves. After all, if it were as easy as changing your mindset from negative to positive, why isnt everyone doing that to heal themselves? Likely, this is due to the general societal belief that traditional medicine is the best or only way to reach physical or mental health.

The thing is, rewiring the brain isnt exactly easy. It takes adopting the growth mindset, where you see challenges as windows of opportunities to change. This isnt necessarily as simple as a decision, either. You will probably have to work to change the way you think.

It takes optimism, consistently directing your focus to the positive instead of the negative. It takes commitment because the changes in the brain dont happen overnight. You have to repeatedly shift your focus and shift your focus until your brain begins to naturally think positively.

How To Rewire Your Anxious Brain: Solution

It is possible to change unhealthy or negative patterns of thinking and behaving. And in turn we can develop new mindsets, new memories, new skills, and new abilities.

So if youre struggling with looping self criticism, anxious thoughts, emotional baggage, which is causing you to feel stuck or trapped.. Its not only possible but necessary to reshape your brain for the better.

And by raising awareness by doing a deep dive of the autopilot brain pathways that run us, we can recognise the barriers that are holding us back in our own minds and start the path toward positive change.

So that tomorrow, that person you see in the mirror can be a stronger, more capable, livelier, free and happy.

To find out more about working with Kelly King, book in a free Strategy Call by clicking HERE

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Ways To Rewire Your Brain From Anxiety To Zen

The Love Whisperer, Relationship Coach and Strategist

I’ve said it before. I have a tendency to be a bit of an adrenaline addict. I’m not the sexy kind of adrenaline addict. I am certainly not a living GoPro commercial. I don’t jump out of planes or climbing big mountains. I tend to indulge in the adrenal drug in much less glamorous ways. I do it with busyness. I’m a pro at taking too much on or at least acting as I have.

For a full year, I doubled timed my already busy schedule by running a state-wide campaign. That campaign job was a job that three people should have been doing. So, basically, I gave myself four full-time jobs out of which only one paid me anything.

Now to be clear, as much as I’d like to think I am, I am not Super Woman. Things in my life didn’t just slip or suffer because I was too busy. A lot of stuff fell through the cracks, and other things fell completely apart. I put a serious strain on my coaching practice and my family. I stressed my body beyond what any body should have to manage.

And then one day out of a sense of frustration and anxiety I quit. There was a folk in the road with the project, and I decided to take the road that led me in another direction. And I thought my life would magically feel different when I woke up the next morning.

It did not.

Although my life slowed down to a reasonable pace and the stimulus was gone, I still felt jacked up and anxious all the time.

That is when situational anxiety becomes chronic.

1. Meditation.

Neuroscientists Explain How To Rewire Your Brain

The brain is an infinitely complex entity. This organ controls thought, memory, touch, vision, emotion, motor skills, breathing, hunger, temperature and every single process that regulates the human body. In combination, the brain and spinal cord make up the central nervous system or CNS. A lot of the brains functions are out of our control. However, many of the functions of the brain can be improved, rewired or hacked.

Although it may come as a surprise to some, much of our suffering is experienced on a neurological basis. Of course, we cannot remove suffering from our existence, however, we can minimize it while improving other areas of our lives by miles. A happy brain equals a happy life.

In this article, we will be looking at how to rewire your brain by using tips provided by neuroscientist Caroline Leaf, PhD.

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The Amygdala And Its Functions

Youll know that your brain processes information, but you may not realize how it warns you of danger. The amygdala is the part of your brain that does this. When you discover something thats potentially dangerous, the amygdala begins to process information. It then sends signals to the body to avoid the danger. The amygdala starts an adrenaline rush, which awakens your mind and muscles.

If youre over-anxious, it means that your brain is always sending you danger signals. Staying calm and rational isnt possible, so its a task to turn off your amygdala.

Its possible to turn your amygdala off, but youll need to shift your mindset. Its up to you to trick your brain into thinking that what you face isnt dangerous. In other words, youll need different words to describe your situation.

Tip : Start Meditating Daily

Meditating is far more than a relaxing exercise it can also greatly benefit the physical state of your brain.

Some research suggests regular meditation can help build more grey matter in your brain, helping with mental illness.

The more grey matter you have, the more emotional control you can have over your internal strength.

Major thinkers with healthy levels of emotional regulation are far less likely to experience anxiety symptoms of human suffering.

Regular meditation is the top practical advice to boost neuroplasticity and form new, healthier connections.

Another massive advantage of meditation is it helps you reframe situations on the surface.

For example, briefly meditating when faced with triggering stimuli can help you understand youre not in danger.

This step can help you form new long-term connections while also offering benefits in the short term.

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Build Your Distress Tolerance

Worrying about what you dont know will just make anxiety and stress worse. But accepting that some answers arent available right now can help you build an emotional muscle called distress tolerance. People with low distress tolerance often turn to unhealthy ways of coping, like substance use or spending excessive amounts of mindless time watching television or gaming.

Telling yourself that you accept the current state of uncertainty can help, Dr. Brewer said. Try telling yourself, Ill change the things I can, and accept the things I cant. Identifying and naming your feelings can calm the part of your brain that is feeling stressed. A multi-sensory exercise like five-finger breathing, in which you trace the outline of your hand with a finger while focusing on your breathing, can help stop negative thoughts from taking over.

As a society were not doing a great job of teaching ourselves to have distress tolerance, said Dr. Brewer. Just knowing we cant change something, that we cant get the information that information alone can be calming. The most adaptive response is to be OK with the uncertainty.

Definition Of Anxiety And Its Different Types

Anxiety at large is the feeling of unease, worry, and fear. Its common for people to feel anxiety from time to time periodically. However, anxiety disorders cause people to feel intense and persistent levels of worry and fear about routine situations. Anxiety disorders interfere with daily life, as they tend to be difficult to control and are not proportional to actual danger. Sometimes, the anxiety builds so excessively to cause a panic attack.

There are five main types of anxiety disorders. The most common is Generalized Anxiety Disorder . GAD consists of chronic anxiety characterized by excessive worry without reasonable provocation. Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder causes a state of uncontrollable unwanted thoughts and repetitive behaviors.

Panic disorder causes random and repeated episodes of overwhelming fear coupled with physical symptoms such as heart palpitations, dizziness, shortness of breath, and chest pain. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is an anxiety disorder that develops after a frightening situation or event that includes the occurrence or threat of serious physical harm. For example, violent attacks, military combat, life-threatening accidents, and natural or human-initiated disasters can all lead to PTSD.

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You Can Unlock Your Full Potential In Life After Getting Rid Of Anxiety

If you ignore your anxiety issues, you are limiting yourself from exploring the infinite possibilities.

What if you could do every single thing in your life without worrying too much about it?

What if you could get rid of your unwanted fears?

Simply, itd be amazing, right?

But its also true that you would be prone to threats if you didnt have your fear and worries.

Its up to you how you deal with it.

If you are smart, you can deal with anxiety-ridden thoughts and achieve your goals.

Always remember:

Your brain is plastic.

Regardless of what your age is, it can learn and reshape.

Id suggest that you read this book summary: What To Say When You Talk To Yourself.

What you say to yourself can also help you train your Cortex to produce less anxiety-creating thoughts and prevent it from unnecessarily activating your Amygdala.

Summary Of The Book Rewire Your Anxious Brain

There are two neural pathways in your brain that cause anxiety and theyare:

• The cortex pathway: If you feel your anxiety is because of thoughts, images, and out-of-control ideas along with doubts, then you are probably facing cortex based anxiety.
• Amygdala Pathway: The amygdala pathway creates a physical reaction to anxiety-like sweating, increased heart rate, etc. Amygdala pathway is involved in both cortex based anxiety and amygdala based anxiety

It is important to understand amygdala based anxiety as it is present in both cases.Amygdala tries to protect you from any possible danger. However, in many cases the response is wrong. You canreduce your anxiety by convincing your cortex that the situation is not dangerous.However, this does not work in every case and you should use breathing techniques to calm yourself. It is important to control amygdala anxiety as it affects other parts of the brain andinterrupts normal body functions. The amygdala takes control of the body aswell as the brain when it feels you are in danger. There are different waysin which anxiety is caused. Amygdala can be triggered by images or thoughtsfrom different hemispheres of the brain.Once you recognize what causes your anxiety, you can use the right set of techniques to calm it down. The key to rewiring your brain is to identify the right techniques.

You are not alone in suffering from anxiety. You can fight it. You need to make yourself a priority and work hard on yourself.

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This Is How To Rewire Your Anxious Brain

by Sheryl Lisa Paul | Dec 13, 2020 | Anxiety, Health anxiety, Intrusive Thoughts, Relationships |

Some people are called to explore the vicissitudes of depression Johann Hari comes to mind. Other are tasked with uncovering the underpinnings of eating disorders, like Anita Johnston, author of the exquisitely wise book, Eating in the Light of the Moon. For a myriad of reasons, both conscious and unconscious, I have been drawn along the pathways of deeply understanding anxiety, intrusive thoughts, panic, and compulsions. I have become over these many decades a devotee of anxiety, an apprentice to this symptom that expresses itself in so many ways for so many people. Anxiety calls to me both personally through my own lived experience and those of my kids and professionally through the extraordinary clients and course members who have found their way to my work.

Thankfully, it was the former : the science supports what psychologists have long known. Just as science through brain imaging can now explain what Buddhist meditators have known for thousands of years about the effects of meditation, neuroscience can now explain not only what is happening in the moment of anxiety but also how to rewire the brain so that we can heal at the neurological root. In other words, science explains the how of the what that psychology and spirituality have taught for a very long time.

Lets back up a bit. Heres what Rewire the Anxious Brain teaches:

Relationship anxiety begins.

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How This Exercise Changes Your Anxious Brain

Heres how this intervention changes your brain.

When something triggers anxiety, like thinking about how much work you have to do, your brain starts responding automatically by activating your fight-or-flight response.

This process of going through 7 steps pulls your frontal cortex back online.

This means we can start to solve problems that otherwise seem unsolvable.

Then, the frontal cortex can then use that information to tell the rest of the brain to chill out.

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How To Rewire Your Anxious Brain

The human brain is a wonder to science. Its ability to change is extraordinary, which means an anxious brain does not have to stay in that anxious state forever. Neuroplasticity is the brains ability to adapt and create new pathways and connections. It can change connections that already exist as well as form new neural connections when it learns something new.

Every time you learn something, your brains wiring can potentially change. The brains neuroplasticity is stronger in children and weakens as you age. This is why children have an easier time picking up new skills or recovering from an injury. Nonetheless, the brains neuroplasticity never stops. With enough effort and repetition, its possible to rewire the brain at any age.

According to Rewire Your Anxious Brain by Pittman and Karle, New connections in the brain often develop in surprisingly simple waysIn some research, just thinking about taking certain actions, like throwing a ball or playing a song on the piano, can cause changes in the area of the brain that controls those movements..

The first step to rewiring your anxious brain is all about mindset. You must disassociate your symptoms and your condition with who you are. You are not your thoughts or your feelings. Your emotions are chemical compounds. Your anxiety symptoms are bodily responses.

My Personal Key Takeaways From Rewire Your Anxious Brain Summary

Here are my takeaways from this book:

• Anxiety begins in our brain.
• We can have wrong interpretations of reality.
• Our thoughts can act as a curse if taken too seriously.
• Our brain is neuroplastic. So it can change over time for good.
• Fears and anxiety are the alert-mechanism in our body. They protect us from potential threats.
• Deep breathing can help ease the physiological effects of anxiety.
• One needs to take a good sleep and do exercise to live a stress-free life.
• One needs to understand his brains key areas to handle mental problems.

BEST DEALS FOR avid BOOK READERS

This book is a handbook for dealing with anxiety problems.

But expect technical jargon to mess with your head a bit.

After all, our brain is a complex machine.

So take your time to understand the scientific terms like the central nucleus, neurons, etc.

Dont expect to be anxiety-free right after reading this book.

This book can guide you, but only by applying the concepts youll learn if they work or not.

Merely understanding your brain is not enough.

You need to figure out the prime cause of your anxiety.

And then try to fix it.

Simultaneously, you have to train your brain to worry less and live more.

Buy this book from Amazon: Hardcover | Paperback | Audiobook

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