3 Instantly Calming CBT Techniques For Anxiety

Hi, I'm Mark Tyrrell from Uncommon Knowledge and welcome to 3 CBT Techniques That Instantly Calm Anxiety. Now, Marcus Aurelius said: "It takes very little to have a happy life, it is all within you, in your way of thinking." I am a great admirer of Aurelius and loved his 'Reflections', which I read many years ago, but to think for myself I open with this quote from the famous Stoic philosopher and Roman emperor because, in my humble opinion, it is simply incorrect or, at less, very incomplete. So let me explain! People thrive in environments that help them meet their innate physical and emotional needs, so as human beings we have these innate needs and we have an instinctive desire to meet them and when we don't meet them, we inevitably suffer and I think that's comforting. . sometimes letting clients know that their happiness is not just about what they do inside their own minds, but also about the extent to which their environment meets their needs;

It's also about taking steps to identify and meet your needs, which is why people who meet their needs in a balanced way are less likely to suffer from

anxiety

. Just as thirst is a sign that you are not meeting your hydration needs,

anxiety

is a sign that you are not meeting your needs in some way. you are not getting your needs met in some way now this is not to say that what we do in our minds has no relevance to our happiness or lack thereof, of course it does, but the way we feel is not just a response to the The way things really exist in the world is also about how we make sense of what is happening to us.

Well, in case you thought I was done ranting. I have another problem with cognitive behavioral therapy that I need to air out before I give you three singles. apply CBD

techniques

to treat anxiety that I have found over the years incredibly useful when working with anxious clients, so let's first look at this unstable theory of changing thoughts to change feelings, now strong emotions arise not after thoughts, not because of the thoughts, but before them. and if you see reference one you will know what I mean, which is why it is often easier and more powerful to change feelings than to change thoughts.

Again, this basic neuroscience contradicts classical CBT. Emotions are a fundamental human characteristic, essential for immediate physical survival. They are more powerful and thoughts occur much more quickly than cognition and sometimes without any associative thinking. Clinical hypnosis is the best way to change feelings and a change in our thoughts is a natural consequence of a change in our emotional responses. For PTSD and phobias, for example, it's not a mistake to think that's the problem and the chances of making significant progress through CBT alone are very remote, but I'm not completely condemning CBT here. I think it can be really useful for less. conditions of severe anxiety, but only when used with skillful approaches that work directly to calm the feelings, so here are three simple

techniques

that focus on the thinking and behavioral side of a person to help them regain control when have been feeling anxious, so CBT The first technique is to focus on how the feelings will change.

It's very simple, so I often remind clients that feelings are fluid and inevitably change, so even if after all the relaxed mental rehearsal work we've done with clients, they find themselves starting to feel a little anxious in a situation. I want you to think about what your feelings will be once you have started to feel better again, focusing specifically on that expected change, so it might be helpful to write down those expected changes in a few words. For example, if they are nervous about a presentation, they might write something like I feel a little nervous, which is natural when those feelings change.

I hope to feel calm and clear-headed again, so you have given yourselves a model, a template for what to expect, so in addition to this I will ask you to imagine what the first small sign might be that those alterations in the feelings are starting to happen because they will inevitably happen, okay, so you could tell me that you will find yourself. speak more spontaneously to your audience or it might be helpful to write those words too well so that the feelings always change and even just remembering that it's really helpful to have your client write or think about how they hope their feelings will improve and the first little indications. that anxiety is transforming into calm, take that concept to the next level, so all good psychological interventions help change expectations and this technique is no exception.

Well now the next technique can be applied in many different ways and is more behavioral than cognitive, hence the second CBT. The technique is to chew it and act normally, so anxiety is a survival response, you know it's not an illness, but it is a response that can sometimes go wrong to the point that it hinders rather than helps, like a guard dog. who feels like he's helping even when he bites the leg of the kind postman or the little old lady next door, so your anxiety response is activated because he feels a threat, even though that perceived threat may not actually be a real threat, so That one way to train anxiety to be selective and behave is to give it feedback to let it know that thank you but you're not needed right now, okay, because anxiety takes the lead from what customers ooh, okay, as well as a simple coincidence of emotional patterns, so if the client acts in the way that we would not act in a real emergency, the anxiety will disappear.

For example, during an emergency we would not speak softly and calmly we would not smile we would not salivate we would not breathe deeply and we would not have the open body posture is okay now, if we purposely adopt a few of these behaviors or even just one of these behaviors, when we start to feel stressed, then we are disrupting the feedback loop where we send the feedback back to our sympathetic nervous system, fear. response that it is not necessary that everything is fine well and good we sent a message to see if there was a real threat I would not be salivating I would not be speaking normally I would not be exhaling for longer than I inhale So, something that even the most anxious client can do It's easily chewing gum or even just imagining that you're doing it, and this is something you would never do during a genuine threat because of course chewing gum produces saliva in anticipation of eating, so it can change very quickly.

Outside of the anxiety cascade, we don't often have the luxury of eating in life-threatening circumstances, okay, so we can encourage our clients to act normally during stressful times to quickly change the feedback loop and turn off the anxiety. anxiety quickly, okay, it's very powerful, but A simple approach and just knowing that they can do this can give clients a huge boost in their confidence and a sense of control because anxiety tends to take away people's control. feeling of control. Anxiety has to do with expectations, which tend to be catastrophic, so let's think about it a little.

Next, the final CBT technique is to grasp the underlying assumption and look for logical conclusions. Well, if someone feels anxious about something it is because he is afraid of some consequence, but what is that consequence? For example, if I am afraid to attend a party, I could ask myself what consequences I fear and I could decide. You know, I'm afraid of meeting new people. Poor thing, okay, but what's the consequence of that? You might ask me. You might say, "Well, maybe they don't like me, but what's the consequence of that?" that I will feel upset and what is the consequence of that, well, I will feel that I am not nice and so on and so on and we can go on and on about this, but how am I going to deal with it?

Well, I'll remember the people who like it. Me, it's okay, I'll soon forget about the party, it will be in the past. I will remember that I can be wrong in assuming that people don't like me, okay, so we are finding contradictions in the final conclusion of fear, okay and I have done this with people who are insecure in relationships, asking them to describe what exactly it is. that they fear and begin to see that the breakup of the relationship would not, in fact, be some kind of catastrophic end, but rather a step on the path to something more. that wouldn't necessarily be bad, so when someone comes to feel that even if their relationship ended, they would survive or even thrive, then the fuel of insecurity runs out, so the takeaways here are that strong feelings shape thoughts, not the other way around, although Marcus Aurelius had some great ideas, we can directly help elevate and calm feelings so that thoughts align with the emotionality of karma.

Working on reframing thoughts can be really helpful and three, we can help people remember that feelings are always changing and coming into focus. about how they expect any current unpleasant feelings to change this can only begin to generate the same expectations they have imagined, we can teach clients to alter their behavioral feedback to send the message to their sympathetic nervous system. nothing to report here there is no emergency and just knowing that this is possible for clients can help them feel more secure and confident and we can finally allow clients to grasp the underlying assumptions and follow the logical conclusions to think about how they would actually survive and they would even prosper if the worst or worst were to happen. called the worst happened Marcus Aurelius also said that we should do good to others as simply as a horse runs or a bee makes honey or a vine produces grapes season after season without thinking about the grapes from which it is born and we cannot say more just That I hope you found it useful and if you did, please like, subscribe and if you want to know where my next video will be posted, hit the notification bell below.

I'm Mark Tara, of uncommon knowledge, and I hope to see you soon. on the uncom slash blog