The world can be an incredibly stressful place. From the hubbub of human life to our constant attachment to the digital world, it’s understandable that people are feeling increasingly stressed when living their lives and looking for ways to overcome anxiety.
For students training to be a counsellor or to offer professional mental health support (such as through a Masters in Mental Health Counseling), understanding the strategies that patients use to stay mindful can not only be helpful in understanding patients but also empowering customers when they’re looking for strategies that they themselves can take aboard.
Mindfulness is not just a buzzword but a vital state to monitor in today’s fast-paced world. Being aware of our thoughts and emotions at any given moment is the key to a healthy and content life.
Let’s explore six techniques that you can use to address anxiety – to promote a sense of calm and to hopefully work towards a more mindful state. From strategies that get your hands moving to the power of meditation, these six techniques offer a range of adaptable solutions to help address some of the anxiety you may feel daily.
Knitting and Crochet
Have you ever seen someone pick up a ball of yarn, a set of knitting needles, or crochet hooks and just start creating? For more than seven million Brits and forty-five million Americans, knitting is a thoroughly enjoyed pastime. From creating gifts for the family to practicing coordination skills, knitting, and crochet can be a great way to develop fine motor skills without doing a stressful activity.
Knitting and crocheting are great ways to embed mindfulness in your day-to-day life. They can help you sharpen your focus and stimulate the mind, and studies have shown that knitting can improve health by helping to slow the mind down – instead of working on many things at once, you’re working towards a singular objective.
Additionally, knitting can boost self-esteem. By investing in your own creations, you’re helping build a meaningful creative outlet for yourself that can also bring great joy to the people around you. After all, can you think of any other pastime that allows you to yarn bomb and get away with it?
Birdwatching
Did you know that birdwatching is going through a renaissance?
In recent years, public data-gathering surveys such as the Big Garden Birdwatch and the Great Backyard Bird Count have seen explosive growth in the number of participants getting involved. Tags like #birdwatching are bringing in new birdwatchers on apps like TikTok and Instagram – appealing to a new generation of birders.
Birdwatching can be great for your mental health and help overcome anxiety. It can be a great way to discover the environment around you, and studies have found that the wonderful moments that birdwatching can create help to reduce feelings of anxiety.
The Power of Music
Music is a powerful way to connect people—whether you love Taylor Swift or The Beatles, there’s almost certainly a group out there who likes the sort of music you like. What you may not realise, however, is that music can be a powerful strategy to overcome anxiety.
A research study published in 2020 found that music has substantial health benefits and can help reduce stress levels by releasing endorphins into the body. These special hormones help increase feelings of wellbeing and are naturally produced to help deal with stress. Listening to music can help produce more endorphins, helping to create physical safeguards to mitigate anxiety.
Gardening
If you’ve got a green thumb, there’s nothing more exciting than grabbing a trowel, putting on your gardening gloves, and getting out into the garden. For many, gardening can bring out strong feelings of pride – after all, you might be helping a new plant grow or a community garden thrive.
Gardening has long been linked to health benefits, particularly mindfulness. Focusing on gardening can help relieve anxiety, and studies have shown that this can have a measurable impact on physical health. Who’d have thought that the humble trowel could be linked to so many health benefits?
A Mindful Walk
When was the last time you went for a walk by the beach or along the river?
A lack of exercise can have negative physical consequences. Sedentary lifestyles, in particular, have been linked to an array of increased risk factors – from an increased risk of chronic diseases such as high blood pressure and type-2 diabetes to reduced blood circulation; a lack of active exercise can be incredibly detrimental to one’s wellbeing.
A mindful walk can offer physical health benefits and help reduce stress by actively encouraging you to switch off and disconnect. Many studies over the years have shown that mindful walking can be associated with reduced stress and help overcome anxiety. It really goes to show that you don’t have to take drastic steps to overcome anxiety—sometimes, it’s just the little things that make a difference.
Meditation
Last but not least, meditation is a great way to reduce stress. Studies have shown that meditation can help reduce stress in the body. By reflecting inward and focusing on yourself rather than being caught in the moments around you, meditation can help improve your perception of the world.
Meditation can help us reflect on stress in a way that is more than just fighting back at it. It allows you to be self-aware, and sometimes, it can even help you better understand how you work as an individual – improving your physical and emotional wellbeing.
Next time you feel anxious or stressed, consider whether any of these strategies are suitable for your overall routine. Whether it’s time for a quick walk or spending time in the garden, adopting any one of these methods may just help to improve your physical and mental well-being in the long term.
