Learning how to relax your body and using the power of self talk can be a helpful part of working through anxiety symptoms. It’s important to tune into your body and mind and regularly practice exercises to help you learn to relax and stay in control of your anxiety.

Managing negative emotions involves identifying negative thinking and replacing it with logical, rational and realistic thinking. Changing our negative thinking to more realistic thoughts is important in remaining centered and feeling in control.

Most of us are not used to paying attention to the way we think and our thoughts can spiral out of control. It’s important to keep track of our thought process. Once you are more aware of your thoughts, you can begin to challenge the thinking errors that are negative and make you feel anxious. You want to examine these thoughts to figure out if they are unrealistic and ask yourself, “what is the evidence that this thought is true? Is it likely? Then evaluate the thought more objectively and come up with an alternative thought that is more realistic. This can help keep you grounded as you come up with quick and easy to remember self positive and coping statements.

The exercise “Your Anxiety Analysis” below is particularly helpful in managing your anxiety by writing down your responses and replacing them with more realistic and positive self talk. These statements can be a helpful reminder when you are feeling distressed and have difficulty thinking clearly.