Anxiety Relief Starts with this Belief

If you have anxiety, congratulations – identifying the condition of anxiety for what it is may be the most difficult step in moving beyond it. The next step is to determine why anxiety has arisen in your life, and then implement a strategy to reverse the trend.

In most cases, the cause of anxiety will lie in your thought processes, meaning the way you mentally perceive your world and what you expect from it. An anxious mind is often dominated by fear based thinking and negative expectations. Aside from anxiety, are you also a worrier? A nervous Nelly? Do you experience stress often? If so, don't be surprised. Anxiety, worry, stress and nervousness are all kind of the same thing – fear based expectations about future events or the immediate environment. Now some worrying is okay, as it is worry that can motivate us to take action to improve our lives. And it's nervousness that helps keep us alert and on guard in truly dangerous situations. However, problems arise if we develop a mental habit of worrying about trivial matters, or if normal everyday situations like socializing cause us to become nervous. Theoretically, everything we do in every moment of our lives has the potential for creating worry, nervousness, or various anxiety symptoms. There's always the possibility that something might not go the way we want it to. If we let the perpetual flow of negative possibilities dominate our thinking, then sooner or later anxiety will arise. Eventually, even when involved in relaxing activities, the overload of negative thoughts, worries, and fears continuing to linger in our subconscious mind creates a constant anxiety or stress sensation. You can learn more about the long-term symptoms of anxiety, including panic attacks, agoraphobia, depression and derealization, at http://www.MC2Method.com/Anxiety.

However, while understanding the origin of your anxiety symptoms may be comforting, you'll probably be more interested in treating the anxiety and getting on with your life. Of course, the logical solution would be to start thinking thoughts that are more positive. However, if you've tried this over simplified and outdated advice before, you've probably discovered that it's nearly impossible to think positive thoughts all day long, when the little voice in your head constantly argues back - and intensifies anxiety. What you really need is a replacement belief that can forever free you of that negative, fearful inner voice. You need a replacement belief from which thoughts, realistic thoughts, will be drawn – a belief that will be the basis of your new inner voice.

In order to begin reversing anxiety disorder, the belief that I suggest you start cultivating is one that says "I can handle it". Whatever you're worried about, whatever you're nervous about, whatever that negative possibility is that you fear happening, realize that you could handle it if it did happen. In fact, this is the truth. You've probably been through quite a bit in your life already to be where you are now. For all the situations and emotional events that have come along so far, there obviously hasn't been one yet that you couldn't handle. You're alive; you're reading this article about anxiety; you have survived everything so far. And if the past is any indicator of the future, you'll survive many more. So why surrender the beauty of your present moment to faulty thinking and anxiety? The human mind's ability to solve problems and endure emotional adversity is enormous. And when it comes to emotional possibilities, the belief that "I can handle it" is a true one. The only reason you're encountering excessive anxiety or nervouness is because you've started to falsely believe otherwise. Try cultivating a real feeling in your heart that "I can handle whatever happens". Start seeing your world, your future, and your every moment in the light of this new perception, and in the presence of this one true belief, your worry thoughts will lose their power and you will overcome anxiety.

About The Author
Reid Reichardt is a self-development author with a specialty in anxiety issues. His online anxiety treatment programs can be found at http://www.MC2Method.com and http://www.AnxietyAway.com.
Copyright © 2006 - Any reproduction of this article must include the Author information above, and all links must be left intact.