Positive Psychology Approach for Anxiety

 Anxiety is the feeling of fear and imagining the worst outcome in any situation. Anxious people are always under the trap of 'What if' or 'What will happen in future'.

 It is important to beat anxiety in a positive manner as though some anxiety is necessary for a good boost of energy, but when it goes beyond clinical levels it interferes with the daily activities of life. Anxiety must be controlled before it begins to control us.

During the last few years, it is being understood reasonably that positive interventions for handling mental heath conditions like Anxiety and Depression makes a person happier and productive than the traditional ways. When the focus is not on treating a disease but a person, then this makes people live their life with a positive outlook despite problems.

Positive Psychology
With the advent of science of happiness or POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY, a significant shift in focus of mental health research and practice has been noticed. Positive psychology has opened a new way of looking into concerns like Anxiety and Depression. It accepts happiness and wellbeing as an essential human skill. It does not concentrate on symptomatic therapy and treatment but centres around emotional stability, expectation management and fruitful thinking. Furthermore, it helps you to focus on building what is right than what is wrong in your life thereby enhance your unique strengths and determine healthy ways to build resilience

Let us see five techniques by which you can defeat anxiety with fundamental aspects of personality such as character strengths, self compassion, kindness, gratitude etc.

1)Gratitude
As Steve Maraboli said, "if you want to find Happiness, find Gratitude.”
Looking at the things which makes your life worth living, a general attitude towards life changes and this makes us happy. Gratitude increases neural modulation in the brain which regulates negative emotions. It also activates dopamine, the neurotransmitter responsible for making us feel good and so obviously it helps in managing Anxiety.

However, just saying thank you is not enough. It would give instant gratification, but to rewire the brain, it must become a habit. For this, maintaining a gratitude journal helps. Every night, write down the things you felt grateful for today. Penning down makes us ponder on things to cherish. So the next time when anxiety begins to set in count on your blessings.

2)Kindness
Happiness and Kindness go hand in hand and a person who feels happier from inside is less likely to feel anxious or at least would be in a better state to deal with his anxiety levels. Whenever anxiety thoughts are trying to dominate your mind, think of doing some random acts of kindness.

•  Go out and help a stranger in need.
• Shower love and food to stray dogs.
• Plan a romantic meal with your partner. Smiles are contagious.
• Volunteer or donate for a noble cause.

3)Strength building
As per the famous saying
"It is within yourself that you will find the strength you require.”
One must find his or her strengths either by introspecting or letting someone tell them, and they should act on them with focused attention. The thoughts of those who experience anxiety are mostly occupied with what wrong has been in their life or what worse outcome is waiting for them in the future, and they often suffer from low self-esteem. When the person is made aware of his capabilities and is reminded how in the past he has come out from a seemingly difficult situation by virtue of his strengths, self-confidence increases and anxiety decreases.

4) Promoting Wellbeing through Mindfulness
Mindfulness approaches involve a type of awareness in which a person pays judgement free attention to their feelings and thoughts of the current moment. It is an open-minded, truly accepting and positive way of responding to anxiety thoughts. Mindfulness techniques help patients with anxiety by helping to increase relaxation while removing negative or stressful judgements. Mindfulness can be enhanced by using various approaches such as meditation, yoga, or deep breathing exercises. Physical exercise, specially aerobic exercise, has been beneficial for anxiety disorders.

5) Involvement in Art and Music
The core process of healing through Art involves in cultivation and release of the creative spirit. If we can liberate our creative process in our lives, it will always find a way to whatever needs attention and transformation. Engaging in any sort of Art therapy such as mandalas, modelling with clay, making collages is related with reduced anxiety, enhancement of emotional awareness and regulation and release of positive feelings.

Similarly, Music Therapy consists of 'the monitored use of music to promote clinical change'. Performing music may also foster positive feelings that promote healing and lower Anxiety positively. Efficacy of music therapy has been supported by scientific literature. Ways to enhance moods with music could be by:

• Hearing that one particular music that instantly calms you.
• Playing an instrument.
• Trying meditative music before sleep.
• Taking dance lessons

Take home message
All these techniques are helpful when things are still in our hands. Positive Psychology interventions are not designed to help people in crisis or in suicidal conditions.
Medications along with approaches like CBT (cognitive behaviour therapy) have to be undertaken in such severe cases.