Surf Your Anxiety

Tips for Managing Anxiety

• Identify the situation that triggers your anxiety 
• Build a ladder of these types of situations by varying elements such as time to exposure, distance from the trigger, and characteristics of the trigger.
• Start at a point somewhere in the middle of the ladder where you do feel uncomfortable, but won’t run away. 
• Hold the trigger constant. 
• Focus your attention on the trigger – no distractions. 
• Wait for the anxiety to decrease and eventually bottom out at a much lower level. 

The more you try to rationally control the physical aspects of anxiety, the worse it gets. Stop avoiding anxiety provoking situations. Move towards them. Surf them in.

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