Anxiety triggers: How to Identify Them
Anxiety is emerging like an
alien from other world. It suddenly attacks us and captures our mind , consumes
our thoughts, energy and time. It demolishes us through a double attack and
destroys our mental as well as physical health. Almost every-day we are at risk
of getting anxiety. I can tell you a number of exercises to " REDUCE ITS
EFFECTS" but ask yourself, is it a solution or an escape from the problem?
In my opinion it is an
escape.
The solution lies only in
learning about the root cause of the troubling issue. In psychology a term “TRIGGER”
is used. It describes all the simulations (actions, words, feelings, scenes,
etc.) that lead you to feel uneasy and eventually you become a prey of anxiety
monster.
- Try to be aware about yourself
Do not just eat, work, sleep and repeat. Be a
person who lives and experience every emotion in full. Whenever you feel any
emotion try to embrace it, sit with it and acknowledge it. Try to be aware of
what and when you feel. We all have a heart and brain, for once let them work
together, allow them to communicate.
- Find out why are you feeling this way
When you are finally be able to sit with your
emotions, start talking with your soul and body as if you will talk to your
assistant about your day. There are two effects of everything that we
experience, one can be seen outside through our face and bodily posture and the
second is what our conscience feels. Former is the outcome of social
conditioning and the latter is the real self -world. Anxiety originates when
they both work antagonistically with each other . So, to perform the second
step towards knowing your trigger, think about the real feeling and analyse how
it was caused. It could be some words said by somebody or some action, a movie
scene , anything.
- Accept the real reason
After finding the how of your emotions, dig deep
into analysis, like you dig deep into a gossip.
Let say you found about Ross and Rachel's break up,
you will ask your friend what happened, and she told you that Ross forgot Rachel's
birthday, you will think it is not a thing to break up, but then you tried to
find out why it bothered Rachel so much. You got know that Rachel's parents
were always into work and never remembered her birthday, it left her feeling
abandoned. When Ross did the same thing, she once again felt abandoned and it
disturbed her up-to such extent.
To make it easy, ask yourself - when did I first
felt like this? Since this trigger gives you anxiety it is surely related to a
situation you remember but neglected for a long time. The answer to this
question is the trigger you are looking for all the time.
Note it down or keep in mind till my next post.
I hope you liked this three-step
guide to find your anxiety tiggers. Next post will discuss the ways to deal
with triggers. Stay Tuned!