Helpful coping skills for anxiety that will make you feel good. The simple skill of reframing your thoughts is a great way to relieve your anxiety symptoms. Reframing unhelpful thoughts can be beneficial to your health and well-being. This is an easy and beneficial way to cope with anxiety. Simply, step back, examine the evidence for your thoughts and explore other ways of looking at the situation.
Your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are all intertwined and constantly influence one another. However, sometimes we acquire detrimental thoughts or behavior patterns. Since these can influence how we feel, and how we feel can influence how we think and behave, it’s easy to get caught up in a vicious cycle of unhealthy thoughts. The good news, you have the power to change these thought processes and improve your mental health with this simple coping tool for anxiety.
One of the most effective strategies to deal with stress and increase our mood is to challenge your unhelpful thoughts and learn how to replace those unhelpful thoughts. Unhelpful thoughts are thoughts that are not serving you and making you feel doubt and worry. The goal is to replace your unwanted thoughts with thoughts that are beneficial and support your natural curiosity. Reframing your thoughts is a coping skill for anxiety that can have a significant impact on your mental health and well-being over time.
The way to do this coping skill for anxiety is to take a step back and challenge negative thoughts by considering what evidence exists to support them, and over time, you will be able to change them into more positive thoughts. This is just one of many effective coping skills for anxiety. The following explains how to use Reframing Your Thoughts to think the thoughts that make you feel good and worthy.
Coping Skills For Anxiety – Reframing Your Thoughts
A simple strategy called “the 3 C’s -catch, check, change” is a strategy that lets you reframe negative and hurtful thoughts before they can bring you down.
Pay attention to your thoughts. When you are unaware of your thoughts and not paying attention to the direction of your thinking, then unhelpful thoughts will gain control of your mind. Soon your point of attraction will consist of expecting the worst outcomes, focusing only on the bad outcome, and condemning yourself for causing negative situations. So, focus on your thoughts and when you notice they are becoming doubtful or trending negative: catch the thought, check the accuracy of the thought, change the thought to a more positive one.
Reframing your thoughts is an excellent coping technique for anxiety. There are many coping tools for anxiety that offer immediate relief from anxiety symptoms. Reframing your thoughts is a skill that will assist you with stopping anxiety before it starts.
Practice catching your thoughts. Notice your thoughts and decide if those thoughts are negative or positive. If they are negative challenge yourself to catch the thought, check the accuracy of the thought, change the thought to a more positive one. Doing this may seem like a challenging skill to learn. Keep trying and soon you will simply become aware of the different kinds of harmful thoughts that exist in your heard. These coping skills for anxiety should enable you to recognize when you are thinking harmful and hurtful things about yourself.
Regularly check your thoughts. Once you have identified a negative thought, check it. This entails stepping back and assessing the circumstances related to the thoughts. Consider it for a time before accepting it to avoid making yourself feel worse.
Ask yourself:
- How likely is this outcome that I am worrying about?
- What is the evidence supporting this belief?
- Are there other possible outcomes?
- Is there an alternative way to think about this?
- What would my best friend say if they heard me thinking these thoughts?
Change your thoughts. You identified your negative thought, now change it into a neutral or positive thought. How can you reframe the thoughts to make them helpful? For example: You think you made a terrible mistake at work, that is actually minor. Instead of thinking about the terrible outcomes such as “I am getting fired”, reframe them and say, “I’ve been in this job for a while and completed lots of tasks before making this minor mistake, so no one will think I’m a failure or want to fire me.”
Don’t worry, this coping skill for anxiety takes time to master. So, be kind to yourself and stop rushing the process. Reframing your thoughts takes practice. Learning coping skills for anxiety requires you to think more flexibly and to become more in control of your thoughts.
This coping skill for anxiety involves reframing your thinking. You can adopt a different perspective on the circumstance if you can distinguish between beneficial and detrimental thoughts. However, this is a very helpful skill to learn.
If you find that you cannot resolve your problems or need additional coping skills for anxiety, then seek help from a mental health therapist. We offer mental health therapy and EMDR therapy in the greater Pittsburgh area. Please contact us to learn more about coping techniques for anxiety and coping skills for depression. Your mental health is important!