To beat anxiety you need to keep yourself in a high life state. Most people who suffer from Anxiety, Panic Attacks or Agoraphobia tend to link their symptoms with certain situations: crowded shops, being far from home, elevators, freeways etc. These associations are of course completely erroneous, they are just our minds trying to make sense of something we don't properly understand.

Anxiety disorders seem to develop when people undergo great stress, hardship or fear at a time when their lives are already at a low ebb. Life stressors which tend to create the conditions in which anxiety disorders take hold include:

bereavement
work stress
illness
divorce
physical/sexual/psychological abuse

And many more. Anxiety disorders also often seem to spring out of a period of depression.

Unsurprisingly, if being in a low life state helps us fall into an anxiety disorder, getting ourselves into a happier, higher life state greatly helps us climb out of the anxiety and fear cycle. So how do we get into a higher life state when we feel so anxious and rotten? Let us examine two options:

Firstly I recommend looking for the good in your anxiety. Whether you have religious faith or not you probably believe things happen for a reason. “What good can possibly have come of anxiety?” do I hear you say? I suspect that if you look hard enough you will find that you have benefited from your anxiety. I did.

In my case:

1.Anxiety caused me to find true happiness because I wouldn't settle for anything less.
2.It made me a fighter – overcoming anxiety left me feeling invincible.
3.It saved me from a dull career in the financial sector, where I would have become a clone.
4.It made me understand the true value of friendship. I would not be the person I am today without it.

I could go on but my benefits are not useful to you, we all have our individual benefits. Try and understand what your anxiety has told you, and what you have gained from it. Try to be grateful for it. That is not as ridiculous as its sounds. When you are grateful for your anxiety and you see it as a part of you that is trying to help you, it becomes easier to release.

The second step of gaining a higher life state it to deal with the people who make your life miserable. These are the people you fear, the people who you feel you need to impress, and the people that control you and put you down. Whether you change your relationship with them or remove them from your life is up to you. There are no short cuts or magic wands here. If someone is making you feel rotten then the situation has to change, and you can't hang around waiting for them to act in your best interest. The action you take depends on your particular scenario, in many cases coolly and calmly becoming more stubborn and less guilty pays a lot of dividends. It may take time for friends and family to adjust to the new you, they may even resent the fact that you are willing to put yourself first for once. This is all part of the process, relish every second: because you're worth it!

A word should be said about domestic violence and bullying at school or in the workplace. If standing up to your aggressor will put you in danger then don't do it. Instead, speak to someone else. You do not have to suffer on your own. When you speak out people can help you in all sorts of ways that you can barely imagine, and your anxiety will improve in droves as you take further control of your life!

In part two of this series I will examine several more ways of raising your life state to beat anxiety.

Thomas Chant
http://www.anxiety2calm.com/