Tackling Anxiety with Jude Daunt
Jude Daunt, a Transformational Success Coach, specialises in helping clients to eliminate anxiety and mental blocks. We spoke to her and asked her to share some tips to help you reduce anxious thoughts during this difficult time when anxiety seems to be at an all-time high. She gave us five tips that we’ve listed below, or you can see via our Instagram account in a video from Jude herself.
Tip 1
Stay in the now
Anxiety can really make up a narrative about what may happen in the future the what if’s I like to call them. Bring yourself into the now and ask yourself, what can I control and what can I do right now that is going to make a difference.
Tip 2
Sit in the discomfort
Anxiety can show up as physical symptoms, tight chest, tense muscles and in worse cases panic attacks. This is your body activating its fight-or-flight response, the system that’s going to keep you alive. It fears something and gives you physical symptoms to warn you of danger. Unfortunately, this response can cause you to push back from the discomfort and try to ignore your thoughts then all you do is focus on the physical pain it is causing. Try sitting in the discomfort of those thoughts. This is where tip 3 comes in…
Tip 3
Self-enquiry
Something I work a lot on with my clients is to get them to acknowledge the physical symptoms and then for them to ask themselves what are the actual thoughts going on for you right now. If you were to write a list and this really helps if you physically do this. Write down all your fears and concerns.
Tip 4
Question the thoughts
Write down all those intrusive thoughts and ask yourself which of these are true as in factually correct and which ones are fear-based with no evidence to support them? The factual ones you can start working through and look at what you can do to control/problem-solve. So, for example, if you have been given redundancy notice then what can you start doing to look for work, evaluate transferable skills, prepare you CV, let everyone know you are actively looking for work etc. For the ones that are not true draw a line through these to physically and mentally let these go.
Tip 5
Action
What are the top 5 things you can action this week that is going to make the biggest impact. Mood follows action. When we are feeling low and anxious it can be hard to change your mind with your mind, but if you can change it with physical appropriate action it creates a sense of achievement, energy is lifted, and anxiety is automatically reduced.
Lastly, when we are stressed, we tend to forget the coping mechanisms that we use when we are in a good place. Eating healthy, exercise, meeting up with friends etc, reading a good book. Little pockets of the good stuff will add up to making a big difference if we do what serves us.
