Sometimes anxiety may feel rational, but actually it’s not helping. Try these three tips to reduce anxiety and start bouncing back.

Let’s face it. The global pandemic has left everyone with historic levels of leftover stress. Work–whether you have it or you don’t–is one source of stress.

We all have fears. Letting your fears get the better of you is counterproductive. Stress can triggers hormones that can actually reduce your body’s immune responses and increase your risk for other health threats like cardiac disease, digestive problems, and depression. If you work to reduce anxiety, you will feel batter emotionally and physically.

It’s not all in your head. Anxiety is in your body. The phrase “worried sick” has been around for generations because people have observed the link between anxiety and sickness.

If your fears keep coming between you and what you need to do to move forward, try these three tips to reduce anxiety and start figuring out your next move.

  1. Mindfulness: Mindfulness of our fears helps us process them. The main thing about feelings is to feel them. Being present with your fears and worries can help them to pass through. Emotions actually stay with us longer when we try to push them down or avoid them. They want to come out. Let them. Feel them, even the uncomfortable ones, and stay alert to when they start to decrease. That’s the time to start thinking about moving on. There is much to learn about mindfulness. Jack Kornfield explains more as does Michael Singer in The Untethered Soul, and Jon Kabbat-Zinn in Full Catastrophe Living.
  2. Meditation: Meditation is the practice of letting thoughts and emotions go and working to connect to the inner, eternal self. Thoughts and emotions come and go. We often get pre-occupied with thoughts and emotions. Even as they change, there is something inside us that is always here. We are not our thoughts and we are not our emotions. We are the presence that feels and observes the thoughts and emotions as they come and go. There are a number of free and paid apps for meditation that can help you connect to what is stable inside of you. I like Headspace and the Jon Kabbat-Zinn app. UCLA also has a wonderful free meditation app with guided meditations.
  3. Exercise: There is nothing like a good, hard workout to get your mind off negative things and open to new ways to move forward. You might not be able to go to the gym or get out for a run, but there are a ton of great workouts available to help you work up a sweat at home. Support your local gym or yoga studio by tuning in online. Or try any of the great free workout on YouTube and elsewhere. Work hard enough to disrupt negative thought patterns and when you’re done, rested and recovered, set your intention on doing one positive thing to move your other goals forward.

Remember that what we believe affects how we act. If you want to act with strength and resilience, start by conquering your fears. Once you do that, you’ll have the mental strength to consider positive options and start moving forward again into a better future.