You set out to learn to manage your anxiety and improve that area of your life. You seek out strategies, techniques, mantras…anything to help you find a better way of coping with the anxious thoughts and feelings. Maybe you’ve picked a particular strategy, such as mindful breathing, that you practice daily. But a month or two down the road, you’re having a hard time seeing the effects of this practice in helping you decrease these unwanted anxious thoughts and feelings. “Is this even working? Have I even changed?” You aren’t alone if you find yourself with these questions. When a client comes to me with these kinds of feelings, I ask them to “check their altitude.”
Coping With Anxiety: How Are You Practicing Brave?
Ever since my son was able to walk, we’ve been going to the same playground regularly. He knows the different slides he likes, the stairs he religiously climbs again and again, and the swinging bridge he’s been too nervous to cross for months. It became almost comical how he would run up to this bridge, only to abruptly stop. Occasionally he would cautiously dip his toe on the bridge to assess his safety, and immediately turn around and head in the opposite direction.