Ditch Unwanted Habits
Four-Step Program: Unwanted Habits
When Challenges Happen
Anxiety: A Note on Feelings
It can help to remember that feelings of anxiety are just feelings. A common problem is worrying about feeling anxious which can just feed the anxiety. We can seem to become trapped in ever-increasing worries that may just make our situation seem worse (getting anxious about being anxious).
There is a generalisation about self awareness that can apply here: What we focus on is amplified. When we get into a habit of looking internally for our feelings of anxiety, fear, depression, and so on, we can become more and more aware of having those feelings and so convince ourselves that anxiety/fear/depression is frequent and our fears justified. By an unintended focus on something that is otherwise a normal part of our life's experience we may come to consider ourselves an anxious, fearful, or depressed person. This can even happen as a simple consequence of wanting to support ourselves and can lead to becoming over-sensitive and over-conscerned without unlocking the causes of our discomfort.
The self-care methods and approaches presented here aim to cut this cycle of introspection and reduce our alarm habit that is often at the heart of anxiety.