Calming CBT techniques to help soothe anxiety

By MiNDFOOD

Tai Chi
We share a selection of CBT techniques that will help soothe anxiety.

Cognitive behaviour therapy, or CBT, draw from both behavioural and cognitive approaches to counselling. As the names suggest, behavioural approaches focus on clients’ observable behaviour. They work from the hypothesis that the way we learn can explain our behaviour. Cognitive approaches, on the other hand, focus on clients’ thoughts and how they are related to their difficulties.

The focus of CBT is to address symptoms while they are present, and to learn skills and techniques that can be used in the ongoing improvement of mental health.

What you think, creates the way you feel. Thus, if we can change the way we think, we can change the way we feel.

You can work with a few simple tools that will assist you in releasing anxiety and bringing in a calmer, more focused sense of yourself.

Breathing

Research shows the right kind of breathing will assist you in bringing down your heart beat and pulse to a natural level for you.

Take a normal slow breath in and very slowly (to count of 8) breathe out.

Ensure the exhalation starts slowly by imagining you are breathing out through a straw.

Repeat this breathing style for at least 4 to 6 times on a regular basis throughout your day and last thing at night. Over a few days you will start to notice as you breathe this way you start to relax more easily.

Stay in the present

Try and stay in the present and think about what is coming up now. Keep it day by day rather than thinking about too big a picture. This will stop you from moving into overwhelm.

Don’t overload your thoughts and feelings with too much information, and instead focus on being in the now, then a day from now, rather than thinking too far ahead. Breathe in the moment you are in, pace your thinking to stay in just enough information to feel ok. The simpler you keep it the better you will feel and the more relaxed you will become.

Rhonnda Stewart is a highly regarded hypnotherapist with nearly 30 years’ experience as a successful clinical practitioner and nearly 20 years as a clinical hypnotherapy teacher. A passion for mindfulness and mental health has driven a genuine desire to deliver the highest quality education availability in the market while running a successful private practice for over 20 years. To find out more about Rhonnda or to book a session with her, click here.

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