Do your negative thoughts regularly race across your mind? Do you feel hopeless and anxious for no reason at times? If you can say yes to either, you’re definitely not alone. All of us stress out from time to time because life just isn’t as easy as the movies make it. To make things worse, certain situations will inevitably affect our level of anxiety well beyond our control. It could be from failing a test, a deadline coming up too quick, or your family member falling deathly sick. Either way, the experience isn’t a fun one for someone who is easily swayed by their feelings. If you want to regain control of your anxiety, there’s a variety of tips out there to not allow it to take over your life. Anxiety especially can bring on feelings of shame and guilt, but those emotions don’t have to remain permanent if you aim to be proactive.

1. Avoid the shame. It’s true that if you’re male you’ve likely to have been raised to control your emotions, as anxiety is perceived as a sign of weakness. Many men with anxiety can easily beat themselves into thinking that they’re dangerously vulnerable and failing in life. This feeling in turn can completely prevent them from reaching out for help. With time, their sense of anxiety can get more severe if no intervention is taken.
2. Don’t turn to addictive outlets. It’s estimated that around 30% of men with anxiety are tempted to turn to substances as a way to cope with their symptoms. As most men are naturally more impulsive than women, they can have a higher tolerance on drugs or alcohol to deal with their emotions. In comparison, women are usually seen turning to their friends to vent their frustrations than initially seeking strong drinks or drugs. Building a tolerance to higher levels of an addictive substance will only damage your mental and physical state over time.
3. Reach out. It’s not unusual to feel hopeless, depression, or stressed when you can’t control your feelings of anxiety as a man.
   The best thing to do is to talk to a friend, family member, or spouse that you trust completely and voice your concerns. They will likely be concerned about your health and can encourage you to seek a doctor when you’re ready. You don’t need to commit to any treatment methods they advise just yet, but gaining more insight into your situation doesn’t hurt at all.
4. Get more sleep. A lot of people find that their stress and anxiety levels greatly reduce when they get enough rest at night. Our bodies need ample time to recover and repair before starting a new day. Without it, our emotions can take a toll and we feel much more frazzled when things don’t go our way. Make sure you can schedule it well into your night and treat it as a top priority for your long term health. Some tips for sleeping better throughout the night is to eliminate any distractions nearby. Make sure your environment is clean, cool in temperature, and your phone is on “don’t disturb” mode to avoid annoying buzzing that could wake you up during the early morning. Another method for great sleep is to use essential oils in your room, be it chamomile or lavender that can signal your body to feel more relaxed and at ease.
5. Move your body. Exercise at least for half an hour every day to get your body sweating and your blood pumping through your veins. Exercise encourages the release of serotonin that helps you feel extremely happy and satisfied as you complete a challenging workout. This doesn’t have to be time consuming as making small changes throughout the day instead of sitting or driving is good enough if you’re busy. Start walking to your destination more often, take the stairs, and even explore all the different desk exercises that are out there to start burning those extra calories. What helped me personally was to set small goals throughout the day and aim for consistency rather than doing things exactly perfect. For example, walking every day for at least thirty minutes is better than waiting all week to bust out a ten mile run. Frequency is everything when you’re trying to get your body and mind into better shape than before.
6. Get involved. Starting a new project or even volunteering is a great way to become more active in your community. Doing so will help you create a strong support network and feel great about helping others who aren’t as fortunate. In my community, a lot of volunteers visit the local animal shelter, food pantry, or children’s after school programs to spend time with people and give back. They love the experience of being able to make another person’s day and that’s a memory that stays for life.

Final Thoughts

Overall, make sure you explore your options to deal with your anxiety and stress. The feeling doesn’t have to be there forever as you are the person in control of who you want to be in the future. My best advice to you is to start with being honest with yourself and think back to when your problems first began. Did you make any changes in your schedule, start to hang out with anyone new, or made any changes within your diet? You might find that certain changes in those areas could have sparked a pattern that negatively affected your life. Learn to also identify what triggers your anxiety, be it work, family, or school. Write your thoughts down in a journal or even text it to yourself when you’re feeling anxious. The change starts with you, so don’t hesitate!

Mind Your Mindfulness

What is mindfulness? When I first heard about practicing it, I felt like I was learning about the next popular buzzword like “selfie” or “swag” that was encouraging to say but had no real meaning otherwise. After digging a little deeper into learning about what it meant, I learned that there’s actually a wide variety of mindfulness exercises out there that bring huge benefits to the mind. From taking a quick breather to focusing on the outer world, it really only takes a few minutes during the day to practice it. You definitely don’t need a guided therapist, a complicated textbook, or a day-long seminar to learn exactly how to get its positive effects. Let’s break down the best and easiest ways that I’ve found to decrease my inner stress and do mindfulness exercises for anxiety.

1. The first and easiest way I’ve found to practice mindfulness exercise is by starting with your breathing. Yes, it’s that simple. One thing you can do is by breathing in and out slowly when you wake up in the morning. Deeply inhale and exhale, allowing a full breath cycle to last from five to ten seconds. A good way to make this work is by breathing slowly through your nose and out with your mouth, releasing all the stress away as you do. Repeat this process for five to ten times, depending on how much time you want to spare. During this experience, let go of your thoughts and worries and focus on nothing but how your body is feeling. You’ll feel a much stronger awareness of your current emotions and calm your mind down from any stress built up from before.
2. Label your thoughts. Think of it as categorizing your emotions throughout the day, placing a label on them in folder, and storing them in a box in your mind. This simple exercise is designed to help you cultivate a heightened sense of awareness and appreciate being alive in the moment. For example, each time you start to think a negative thought during the day, take a short moment to stop, recognize that the words running through your mind are changing, and label them as damaging. After doing so, imagine that you’re placing these dark thoughts in a box and locking it really tight so they don’t affect the rest of your body. This process sounds like a hoax, but I promise that visualizing it all really helps bring a sense of peace when you’re going through hours of the most stress.
3. Music therapy can play a huge impact on influencing our mood for the better, which brings me to the third best way to practice mindfulness. Through music, we can process our thoughts and use honesty in recovery from any negative events that occur in our daily life. The next time that you feel extremely negative, turn on a relaxing track that has slower beats. And since much of what we feel listening to music can be influenced from a past event, like being reminded of a breakup, aim to listen to a new song you haven’t heard before from a neutral perspective.  Ignore any labels that you may have from the artist or producer and allow yourself to get lost in the journey of track for however long it lasts. Opening your mind to its dynamic melody and rhythm ultimately trains your mind to become less swayed and influenced from any new outside forces that come your way.
4. The next best method to practice mindfulness meditation for anxiety is taking the time each day to list what you’re grateful for in life. This could take no longer than five minutes to be reflective of all the blessings that are present in your environment. The point of this exercise is to practice giving more thanks and appreciate the seemingly less important things in life. These people, events, or opportunities are the vehicles that support our life but often fade into the background of our minds. Giving them attention helps spark our inner fire to work toward bigger and better things to come. For starters, think of five things every day that you’re thankful but don’t always focus on. Once you have identified all those things, try to make it your priority to find out everything you can about how they support your purpose and work towards appreciating them even more than before. Gratitude brings happiness above all else as it helps you feel more encouraged and support to take on your day.
5. Cleaning your space can be another great space for meditation. To bring more mindfulness into your life with cleaning, be sure to first think of it as a positive event rather than a boring chore. Then, select a space in your home that you want to focus on and think of only the benefits that making it neater, prettier, and less clogged will bring.  Concentrate on the broom in your hands as you sweep the floor or the squeaks that the glass cleaner makes when you wipe the windows. Feeling engulfed in the experience can help clear your mind and appreciate the hidden beauty your environment has once all the clutter and noise is cleared. The same thing goes for your mind, taking time to clear it and think about its foundation is essential to bring heightened spiritual in recovery from negativity.

Just Do It

I highly encourage you to just try one of these tips to start practicing mindfulness in your life. Start with something small and practice it over and over again until you feel comfortable to try another method. You’ll find that your concentration is much better than before, I know I did when I began trying yoga and meditation myself. Knowing about your personal habits and exactly how to improve them is essential to getting on the road to less stress and anxiety!