If you tried to search the internet for methods that can help you stop anxiety you will always bump into breathing and relaxation techniques.
While breathing techniques are widely used to reduce anxiety and have been proven effective still they only work on reducing anxiety after it happens rather than preventing it from happening!! After all it makes a lot of sense to try to stop anxiety from occurring than to control it after it happens.
It's the same as trying to control depression using medication right after it happens rather than preventing it from happening in the first place.
In order to learn how to prevent anxiety you first need to know why do you feel anxious in certain situations.
In this article I will explain how anxiety occurs and how you can prevent it.
What is anxiety all about? Anxiety is an emotion experienced when you encounter any situation that might represent a threat to your well being.
For example, if you had a very low rejection tolerance you might become anxious social situations because they can lead to rejection.
Lets suppose that you managed to increase your rejection tolerance by building self confidence and fixing your beliefs about rejection, wouldn't that make you less anxious in similar situations? Of course it will.
People feel anxious whenever they feel that they are not in control, by developing the skills that they lack they will feel more in control and so become less anxious.
If you feel anxious while speaking in public then this means that you are not sure of your ability to perform well in front of a crowd either because you lack certain skills or either because you never had the chance to test your skills before.
Learn new skills to prevent anxiety Now what if you learned how to speak loud and clear, how to attract the attention of the audience and how to give an interesting presentation, won't that make you feel less anxious during the next presentation? Again the answer is yes.
So to summarize it all, If you want to prevent anxiety then you must do the following: * Determine the situations that make you feel anxious: This is the first step to preventing anxiety * Know the skills that you lack: Dig behind these situations to find out the skills that you lack and that are the reason for the anxiety you experience * Learn and master these skills: Learn these skills and master them.
* There is no problem in using relaxation techniques: There is no problem in using relaxation techniques along the way to help you be in control while you learn the missing skills but don't depend on them alone because they will never cut your anxiety from its root We feel anxious because we doubt our ability to perform well because of the lack of certain skills, learn these skills and you will overcome anxiety.