Category: Anxiety

Both techniques can reduce that anxious, rushed feeling on a daily basis, research finds.

It can feel like we have less and less time to get things done.

But there are two easy ways to increase the feeling of having time.

The first — slow breathing — is simple enough to do (see the end of the article if you would like some instructions).

The second is reframing stress and anxiety as excitement.

This can be done by simply telling yourself that you are excited.

Excitement has many of the same feelings in the body as stress and anxiety but has a positive meaning.

The idea is to reframe what you are feeling.

Research finds both techniques work well to decrease that anxious, rushed feeling on a daily basis.

The study’s authors write:

“Beyond the number of activities actually competing for their time, emotional conflict between activities makes consumers feel that they have even less time.

Emotions such as guilt about where time is being spent or fear over loss of income both generate stress, and make a person feel more pressed for time than they actually are.”

The reason for having such stressful lives is the complexity of everyday life, the study’s authors write, as people…

“…exist in a complex social environment that often activates multiple goals at the same time.

People may simultaneously have goals to be successful at work and a good parent at home, save money for retirement and buy nice things, or be healthy and indulge in tasty treats.”

Of course this pressure has a knock-on effect:

“Feeling pressed for time impacts how consumers spend time, and how much they are willing to pay to save it.

From a consumer standpoint, feeling pressed for time can have many harmful consequences such as poorer health, trouble sleeping, and depression.

By pausing to breathe or envision the source of stress in a more positive light, people can enjoy the time they actually have in a healthier and happier way.”

Here are the breathing instructions:

“…breathe so that each complete breath (inhale plus exhale) lasts 11 counts.

The inhale should last 5 counts (i.e., 1-2-3-4-5) and the exhale should last 6 counts (i.e., 6-7-8-9-10-11).

Please complete 10 of these 11 count breaths now.”

The study was published in the Journal of Marketing Research (Etkin et al., 2015).

One hour of this type of singing can improve mood, immune function and more…

Singing in a choir for only one hour can improve mood, reduce stress and even boost immune proteins, a study finds.

The largest improvements in mood were seen among those suffering with the greatest level of depression and lowest mental wellbeing.

The research involved 193 people whose lives had been touched by cancer and who were members of five different choirs.

Dr Ian Lewis, one of the study’s authors, said:

“These are really exciting findings.

We have been building a body of evidence over the past six years to show that singing in a choir can have a range of social, emotional and psychological benefits, and now we can see it has biological effects too.

We’ve long heard anecdotal evidence that singing in a choir makes people feel good, but this is the first time it’s been demonstrated that the immune system can be affected by singing.

It’s really exciting and could enhance the way we support people with cancer in the future.”

Dr Daisy Fancourt, the study’s first author, said:

“Many people affected by cancer can experience psychological difficulties such as stress, anxiety and depression.

Research has demonstrated that these can suppress immune activity, at a time when patients need as much support as they can get from their immune system.

This research is exciting as it suggests that an activity as simple as singing could reduce some of this stress-induced suppression, helping to improve wellbeing and quality of life amongst patients and put them in the best position to receive treatment.”

Diane Raybould, 64, who was diagnosed with breast cancer and has been singing in a choir since 2010, said:

“Singing in the choir is about more than just enjoyment, it genuinely makes you feel better.

The choir leaders play a huge part of course, but so does the support of the other choir members, the inspirational programme and uplifting songs.

The choir is a family, simple as that.

Having cancer and losing someone to cancer can be very isolating.

With the choir, you can share experiences openly and that is hugely important.”

The study was published in the journal eCancer Medicalscience (Fancourt et al., 2016).

Neuroticism is a personality trait that is strongly linked to anxiety, sadness, irritability and self-consciousness.

Learning to value taking action is an important way of reducing the harmful effects of neuroticism.

People high in anxiety and neuroticism dislike taking action, research reveals.

Neuroticism is a personality trait that is strongly linked to anxiety, sadness, irritability and self-consciousness.

When faced with major or minor decisions in life, neurotic people tend to avoid taking action.

Naturally, this can sometimes have negative consequences.

The study’s authors describe their results:

“People who are less emotionally stable have less positive attitudes towards action and more positive attitudes toward inaction.

Furthermore, anxiety was primarily responsible for neurotic individuals’ less positive attitudes toward action.

The link between neuroticism and less positive attitudes toward action was strongest among individuals who endorsed more collectivistic than individualistic beliefs.”

The results come from surveys of people in 19 different countries.

Almost 4,000 people were asked about their attitudes towards action and inaction, along with depression, anxiety and neuroticism.

The study’s authors argue that learning to value action is very important for neurotic people:

“People who are interested in reducing the harmful consequences of neuroticism in their own lives should think about how their attitudes toward action might be affecting their behavior.

By learning to value action, they may be able to change many of the negative behaviors associated with neuroticism and anxiety — such as freezing when they should act, or withdrawing from stress instead of dealing proactively with it.

These findings lay the groundwork for finding new methods of studying and ultimately preventing the negative consequence of neurotic action avoidance.

Specifically, increasing exposure to action may be sufficient to combat tendencies to avoid proactive behavior.”

Related

• 2 psychotherapies that reduce neuroticism dramatically.

The study was published in the Journal of Personality (Ireland et al., 2014).

Escape from worries about past and future and find it easier to focus on the present moment.

Just ten minutes of mindfulness each day is effective against repetitive anxious thoughts, research reveals.

The practice can also help stop your mind from wandering.

People in the study who meditated for only a short period found it easier to focus on their present-moment external experience rather than their internal thoughts.

Mr Mengran Xu, the study’s first author, said:

“Our results indicate that mindfulness training may have protective effects on mind wandering for anxious individuals.

We also found that meditation practice appears to help anxious people to shift their attention from their own internal worries to the present-moment external world, which enables better focus on a task at hand.”

82 participants in the study either did 10 minutes meditation or listened to an audio story.

Those who meditated were better able to stay focused on a subsequent task they were given.

Mr Xu said:

“Mind wandering accounts for nearly half of any person’s daily stream of consciousness.

For people with anxiety, repetitive off-task thoughts can negatively affect their ability to learn, to complete tasks, or even function safely.

It would be interesting to see what the impacts would be if mindful meditation was practiced by anxious populations more widely.”

Studies have also found that mindfulness meditation has many benefits, including reducing depression and pain, accelerating cognition, increasing creativity, debiasing the mind and much more.

• Now try these 10 mindfulness exercises.

The study was published in the journal Consciousness and Cognition (Xu et al., 2017).