Living in the present is advice that you hear all the time. If you suffer from anxiety, it’s often touted as a solution that can help you to keep you mindful and aware of your current situation with a greater degree of clarity. That’s all well and good, but it’s often something that’s easier said than done.
Still, it’s something that you should strive to do, as it very much can help you to stay surfaced above the various anxieties that you have to contend with – grounded by the activities and people around you, helping you to find joy with what you have instead of constantly chasing it.
Deep Breathing Exercises and Meditation
It’s natural to feel disappointed when breathing exercises or meditation are offered as a solution to anxiety, only for you to try them and realize that they aren’t the cure-all that you might have thought they were. It’s an important thing to learn, as while they might not be able to completely erase your anxiety, they are tools that can be incredibly helpful when used properly – part of that use is adjusting your expectations.
Once you have, though, these practices can help you to draw your awareness to things happening right now – often your breathing – and allow you to gain experience at better controlling your response to anxious thoughts. The thoughts will appear, but that’s not always something that you can control. It’s about your response to that appearance.
Take That into the World
While you might find this easy enough to do when you’re in a focused situation as you are in meditation, you might struggle with it more when you’re living your normal life, and it’s so easy to slip back into old habits. Again, it’s not about blocking thoughts out, it’s just about being conscious of the present moment.
If something that you enjoy is online casino games, for example, you might find it easy to zone out and mindlessly play while also ruminating. Instead, think carefully about what you can see. Take a game of slots, for example. Paying greater attention to the visuals can give you a better sense of when to stop the reels, and that awareness is something that can be extended to the precision of your touch and reflexes. In this sense, being present can have a practical benefit too.
Enjoy What You Have
Hearing the advice to ‘be grateful’ can be a nebulous thing to hear and put into action. When you don’t understand why you’re doing something, doing it at all can seem pointless. It’s not about some aimless gratitude. However, it’s about understanding what you’re happy about in your own life and current situation and embracing that – being happy that things are the way that they are. It’s easy to regret the past or fear the future, but if everything is okay in this very moment, focusing on that might help to quieten the voices that you normally spend so much time listening to.
