This article discusses self-help techniques for anxiety, what you need to understand in order to be successful with them.

Self-help Techniques for Anxiety
This is a new podcast as of May 7, 2017. I discuss techniques for properly using self-help for anxiety, panic attacks, panic disorder, and agoraphobia. Are they hype? There is one overall principle that I share that makes this episode well worth listening to.
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I would like to start off with a great quote:

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
–Martin Luther King, Jr.

This quote absolutely applies to self-help techniques for anxiety. I’ll tell you why. Because if you think about it, it’s easy to do all the things you should do (the various self-help techniques for anxiety discussed in this website and my free newsletter) when times are easy. However, it’s doing them when times get rough that is essential.

Using the following suggestions – which contain a bit of philosophy combined with concrete principles – can help with your recovery of anxiety, panic attacks, and agoraphobia.

The following self-help techniques for anxiety should be kept in mind when the going gets rough!:

1. Recognize the effects that setbacks (perceived as negative experiences at the time) will have on you (i.e., de-motivate you) but then realize that such things are a part of life for everyone. You can choose to keep moving through them.

2. Know that it is during these times that it is most important to conduct all your self-help techniques for anxiety.

3. Know that by working through these times there is the potential that you will often come out feeling better, and feeling a sense of accomplishment – this is an added bonus!

4. Recognize the ripple effect that these things have in your life. If you do something that benefits one area of your life, this will benefit other areas of your life. Think of a wave of water. When a wave forms, it permeates across a body of water and sends a ripple through it – the same can be true when you take care of yourself. When you’re having a tough time and still carry out your self-help techniques for anxiety, you start a wave of motivation that can lead to more motivation to do other positive things.

5. Expect that there will always be some negative experiences in life. As mentioned, not all things in life can go how you would like them to. I’m reminded of a parable about a man that dies and thinks he is in heaven. He can do all of the things he wants to do whenever he wants to do them – everything is to his pleasing at all times. The real lesson is that he learns that he is not in heaven but in hell. This is very true: if everything went your way – and you didn’t have setbacks – you would never be leading a true life. In other words, you need to have contrasting experiences, which means some good and what you consider bad.

As you can see from other articles on this site, there are many self-help techniques for anxiety. But the principles in this article illustrate just how critical it is for you to remember and apply them when times get rough.

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