We’ve all experienced anxiety. Some of us suffer from it more than others, but no matter how Zen you try to live, anxiety will occasionally creep in.
There are some clear and common triggers for anxiety.
• Money
• Family
• Uncertainty
Most of us can relate to these.
What’s really frustrating, however, is when you feel anxious and don’t know why.
If you’re feeling unsettled, like there’s something hiding in the shadows and you just can’t put your finger on it, there may be some very good, yet unexpected reasons for that.
Unexpected Anxiety Triggers
We don’t always realize the affect some seemingly non-stressful and common situations can have on our state of mind. But there are many day-to-day circumstances that can turn out to be that thing in the shadows sending your anxiety levels up.
Some of the most regular, yet easy to overlook, anxiety triggers might surprise you.
• You’re tired and don’t realize it. We all know that sleep has significant effect on many aspects of health, but anxiety? Absolutely.
Not only having enough sleep, but also having the right quality of sleep. Deep sleep – not REM sleep where your wildest dreams occur – is crucial for resetting and restoring your mind. Lack of sleep in general, and deep sleep in particular, will weaken your ability to keep things in perspective and leave you vulnerable to anxiety.
If you’re feeling anxiety that you can’t explain it’s quite possible that you’re not getting the right kind of sleep and you’re more tired than you realize.
• You need some alone time, or you’ve had too much alone time. Everyone’s tolerance for social engagement is different.
If you’re an extrovert you gain energy and inspiration from being with others. An introvert, on the other hand, needs more time alone to recharge. We all, however, need a balance of both.
Too much time in your head with only yourself as company can skew your perspective on things. The flipside of that is that not enough time alone to decompress can mean you aren’t giving yourself time to think, plan, and digest life’s circumstances.
If your social interaction is out of balance it can leave you feeling anxious and not understanding why.
• Exciting concert coming up? Big presentation? Vacation? These things are all different, but they do have one thing in common – you experience anticipation leading up to them.
It seems like anticipating something fun, like a vacation, would have a far different affect on you than anticipating a large presentation, but physiologically speaking, not really. They both can cause anxiety.
• Overexposure to world events. Many of us feel like staying well informed about world events is the responsible and intellectually wise thing to do. But we live in a 24/7 information cycle and too much information can lead to anxiety.
Question – If you lived in a cabin in the woods with no knowledge of the ridiculous and sometimes horrible things that happen in the world, how do you think that would affect you?
Answer – It would lessen your anxiety overall.
Am I suggesting you move to the woods or ignore the world around you? No. But lessening the constant exposure to everything bad in the world can help reduce your anxiety levels.
• You need to move your body. Just like we know sleep is important for good health, we also know the same is true for exercise. As it relates to anxiety, exercise will help you refocus, release endorphins which can help counteract anxious feelings, and protect and improve the systems in your body that are most immediately affected by anxiety. There is wisdom in the idea that you can run your worries away.
• An unbalanced gut. Many refer to the gut as the second brain. If your nutrition is unbalanced it can affect your mood and therefore your responses to stressors. So, skip the over-processed, nutritionally deficit snacks and meals, and try rebalancing your diet to help beat feeling anxious.
• You’re too busy. Better busy than bored, right? Eh, kind of. Being too busy can mean you don’t have time to rethink and reframe challenges, put them into perspective, and handle them properly. This can leave you feeling frantic and disorganized which will lead to anxiety levels rising.
Regular down time will actually make you feel calmer and increase your productivity overall.
• Piles of laundry, that collection of glass cats, too many unread magazines and books lying around all equal clutter. No matter how much you love and think you need all the “stuff” around you, if you have too much of it you can find yourself living with a low level, but constant anxiety.
This list isn’t comprehensive and can vary from person to person. What’s important is to look beyond the obvious triggers as you determine the source of your anxiety.
Handling The Hidden Triggers
A large part of handling anxiety is recognizing that you’re suffering with it to begin with. It’s extremely difficult to deal with something you haven’t acknowledged.
So, start by admitting that even though everything appears fine, that feeling you can’t put your finger on it could be anxiety.
Next, look for possible causes.
If most things in your life are operating status quo, then you’re probably dealing with some of the hidden triggers that none of us think about. This means you’ll need to take a little time considering the various aspects of your life and see what would be allowing anxiety to sneak in.
Once you’ve narrowed it down you can take the appropriate steps to alleviate or control the trigger.
Just don’t get anxious over alleviating your anxiety. Anxiety itself doesn’t need to become a hidden trigger.
—
Photo by Anaya Katlego on Unsplash
The post Life’s Good, So Why Am I Always Anxious? appeared first on The Good Men Project.
Original Article
