According to some recent studies, anxiety affects about 40 million Americans or approximately 18 percent of the population. Anxiety is the most common presenting mental health issue in clinical care. It is something that almost all of us have experienced to one degree or another, and many problems related to the COVID-19 pandemic only exacerbate our anxiety. Anxiety can have physiological symptoms such as GI problems, blood pressure, difficulties with sleep, and other related issues such as panic attacks.
One of the best ways to begin hammering away at anxiety is to shift your focus from future catastrophic thinking, to a present-tense focus on the here and now. This is the principle that Jesus was using in Matthew 6 when he says to not be anxious about tomorrow, but to consider the birds and the flowers of the field that do not stress and worry about what is coming next.. they just exist in the moment and their heavenly Father takes care of them. Mindfulness (like the birds hopping around and living in the moment) is very helpful in helping to reduce anxiety symptoms. For anxiety that is connected to the things that did not go well in the past, it can help to think about the things that are going well here and now. Sometimes positive affirmations can help facilitate a reduction in anxiety. Here is a link to a helpful article about how something as simple as positive self-affirmations can help to reduce your anxiety:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/click-here-happiness/201901/positive-affirmations-11-keys-affirmations-work
