30 Days to Everyday Anxiety Relief

Day 1: False Alarms

Your brain's primary role is to keep you safe. And boy, does it take its' job seriously. So much so, it has a tendency to go overboard. You've heard the saying, "Better to err on the safe side," haven't you? Well, so has your brain.

If you're experiencing anxiety on a regular basis, your brain has gone overboard and needs a hand. Fortunately, your anxious responses aren't set in stone no matter how long you've been having them. And although you didn't ask for this situation, you can step up and help your brain out.

Because anxiety feels pretty heavy most of the time, I've chosen a light analogy to serve as the framework to illustrate how you're going to help out and retrain your brain's anxiety circuits.

*Picture yourself with the hot date of your dreams at your favorite restaurant. The lights are low, and the candle is flickering in the middle of the table. You're enjoying great food and conversation when suddenly you are interrupted by a blaring car alarm! It totally hijacks your attention away from the awesome date. You look outside and find the car to determine if it is an emergency.

*You notice it is a false alarm. The car's alarm is so sensitive that it went off when the people in the car behind it shut their doors.

*You turn your attention back to your amazing date. Slowly, even though the alarm continues, you find yourself not noticing it as much. And it's not affecting your date like it did in the beginning. It is still there, but it stops bothering you. You actually don't notice when the alarm turns off.

Your anxiety is a series of false alarm thoughts and feelings in your mind and body.

And just as a car alarm is intended to help keep a car safe, your anxiety is intended to help keep you safe. But anxiety is designed to be short-lived. If your anxiety is something you regularly experience, your alarm system needs help.

So the next time you start experiencing anxiety, you must determine whether your brain is actually being helpful or unhelpful in its attempt to keep you safe. This may seem odd because you were never taught you could question your brain's messages. But you can and you must.

Your anxious thoughts are helpful if they spur you to take a needed action, help you problem solve or remind you to take care of business. Those helpful feelings are meant to inspire action toward things you can control. Once you accomplish those tasks, your worry and anxiety are designed to mentally, emotionally and physically dissipate.

Now on the other hand, thoughts can be determined unhelpful if you experience worry or anxiety over things you can't control. Or regarding situations in which you've already done what you could. Unhelpful thoughts are also those that are unrealistic, irrational or exaggerated.

So your first step is determining whether the messages of worry and anxiety you're experiencing are helpful or unhelpful.

Once you've checked on that (just like looking out the restaurant window and checking on the reason for the car's alarm) the second step is to label those unhelpful worries or anxious thoughts false alarms.

They are considered false alarms because they're not turning off and keep looping in your head. Remember, your worry and anxiety are designed to mentally, emotionally and physically dissipate, not hang around.

Labeling them false alarms doesn't mean they aren't based in some truth, real concern, or that they don't stem from past situations that were truly embarrassing or scary. They are false alarms because there currently is no emergency or bad thing happening and yet your brain is continuing to send messages that make you think there is.

The third step is turning your attention onto something else. In the car alarm analogy you turned your attention back to your hot date. In your actual life, unless you really are on a hot date, you'll turn your attention toward something concretely in the here and now. You'll place your focus onto something you are doing in the present in order to shift it away from your anxious thoughts.

Your goal in retraining your brain's anxiety circuits isn't to rid yourself of anxiety altogether, but to fine-tune your system. You'll return your anxiety to the intended function of sending out helpful alarms by assertively and effectively separating your false alarms from situations that require further attention.

Today your focus is on repeatedly identifying and labeling false alarms. This is the key concept in retraining your brain's anxiety circuits. If you want more examples of labeling false alarms, I've created an online resource that includes case studies of past clients and how they've successfully labeled their false alarms to overcome their particular anxiety challenges. You can find those at www.eileenpurdy.com/case-studies.

Day 1 Takeaway Practice Activity

1. Whenever you have an anxious thought or feeling, determine if it is helpful or unhelpful.

2. If it is helpful, let it motivate you to do what you need to do. Then allow the anxious or worrisome thought to dissipate.

3. If it is unhelpful, thank your brain for trying to protect you, and then label it a false alarm.

4. Turn your attention toward something else, something concrete in the here and now.

5. Repeat labeling the false alarm and refocusing your attention until you get your attention off of your anxiety and onto something in the present.