How To Stop Anxiety By Occupying Your Mind

January 22, 2009 by Alex
Filed under: Anxiety Disorders, News & Updates, Panic Attack Help, Personal

I’ve had a few conversations lately, all with people who are living with severe panic and anxiety, and each of these people said the same thing to me: that they spend hours and hours of their day just worrying, beyond their control.

This wasn’t really surprising to me, because I used to do it too.

It got so bad for me at one point that it was almost as if I would schedule parts of the day where I would just sit or lie down and worry over just about anything I could think of. There’s something compelling out worrying.

It’s addictive.

I think it used to give me the feeling that I was trying to solve my problems, which gave me what I thought was a good reason to keep doing it. It made me feel like I was doing something, taking action, when in fact I wasn’t doing anything at all.

Aimless worrying achieves nothing. It just leads to more worry, more anxiety, more panic attacks.

This subject of endless worrying, and having no power to stop it, hasn’t been on my mind for a long time. Not until these conversations that I’ve had recently with the people I mentioned at the start of this post.

And now that I think about it, I realise that it’s not something I do anymore. So I’ve been trying to discover what I do differently that’s stopped the constant worrying I used to do.

And here’s what I came up with.

I don’t worry all the time like I used to because I don’t allow myself the time to do it anymore.

Back when my anxiety was at its worst I didn’t do anything with my time. I’d just sit around, worry, lie around, panic, sleep, eat, and then I’d worry and panic some more.

It’s a tough cycle to break, which you probably know first-hand.

I think what broke the cycle for me was when I started to read everything I could get my hands on - and most of the books I read were related in some way to my problems with anxiety and panic.

Suddenly, a large part of my day was spent reading, learning, and when you’re reading and learning it’s hard for your mind to multi-task and do anything else at the same time. And that includes worrying.

(Stimulating your mind is also a great anti-anxiety trick, by the way. And there’s nothing better than reading to achieve it.)

So I was reading a lot. Then, as my reading lead to the discovery of some effective ways to deal with panic disorders, I decided to start sharing what I was learning. I started putting little videos and audios together, which is kind of what lead to everything I do now with my websites/newsletter/videos/books. These videos and audios took up even more of the time I used to spend worrying.

Then I did something which took up more time than I’d ever have believed.

I got a puppy!

She’s not a puppy anymore. She’s about 16 months old now (her name’s Millie). And I walk her at least an hour a day, every day. So that’s even more time my mind is too busy on other things to worry.

So you get the idea. I now do lots of stuff with my time, and that makes it hard for my mind to wander onto worries - it’s usually preoccupied with something else.

But it produced another benefit - one that I wasn’t expecting at all.

I’ve realised that having so much of my day filled with stimulating or distracting things has completely changed the way I act and feel when I do have some free time to just relax and sit or lie about.

Now, when I have nothing to do, it’s like my whole body just sighs relief. The very thing that used to cause me to worry (free time and lazing about) is now the thing that gives me my most relaxing moments in life.

I really wanted to share these thoughts with you today, because I think it’s something you should try. I really think it can help you if you have any issues at all with anxiety, panic attacks, or just constant worrying.

So start introducing something new into your day. It can be anything you like. Try a new hobby. Put up a website on something you love (don’t know how to put up a website? Learning how has just become your new thing to do!). Start reading up on something that interests you. The possibilities are endless. And right now, all you need is one new thing.

So find that “just one thing” and start doing it today. And if this works for you, and you find yourself worrying less, find a second thing, and a third, and so on. Before you know it, you won’t be worrying anywhere near as much as you do right now.

Share This Post: