Hi everyone,
If you've done some research into anxiety, you've probably discovered that many forms of anxiety arise as a result of long term patterns of negative thinking and worry. That's pretty obvious. What's less obvious is how to reverse such long-term, and incredibly habitual, thought patterns. Personally, trying to think positively often just makes me negative (it's a lot of work, and there's always that little voice arguing the opposite). What I've found more effective is to instead try to focus on changing certain core BELIEFS from which more positive thoughts will effortlessly flow. The following excerpt is taken from mc2method.com/anxiety - I think some of you will find it useful:
"Fear and worry can be beneficial survival mechanisms when they prompt us to choose safer alternatives in our physical world. But the excessive worry that leads to anxiety severely limits our ability to engage in everyday activities, and the amount of mental energy channeled into negative expectations usually far outweighs the amount of actual risk.
Ask yourself, what is the realistic probability that your feared event will actually happen? Is it worth filling your head and coloring your experience with visions of catastrophe? Ironically, the imagined catastrophe for most anxious people is a physically harmless event that could occur. This might revolve around fear of speaking, socializing, failure, embarrassment, loss, loneliness, and so on. Anxiety about these fears, if not confronted, can be devastating if it prevents us from taking steps to live the type of life we desire.
What we need in order to start moving beyond these self-limiting tendencies are replacement beliefs that give us a sense of self-control in all situations.
There is one belief in particular, one realization, that when FULLY INTERNALIZED, will free you to live without excess anxiety and to fully enjoy the life that you have available to you now. This is the realization that YOU CAN HANDLE IT. Whatever it is that you fear happening, realize now that YOU WOULD BE ABLE TO HANDLE IT IF IT DID HAPPEN. No matter how bad it is, you have a strong mind, you will be able to cope, you won’t lose your sanity, YOU WILL SURVIVE.
In order to begin internalizing this new perspective into your belief system, continue working on your ability to be present with the feelings in your body. This is where confidence in your capacity to handle anything begins. If you can handle anything in your inner world, you can handle anything in your outer world. And anxiety simply cannot grow in the presence of such an attitude." source: mc2method.com/anxiety