11 Ways You Can Overcome Fear & Anxiety

in this video i'm going to share with you 11 techniques that i use to overcome anxiety if you're someone who experiences a lot of stress or anxious thoughts or negative patterns then this video is for you now for most people when they experience any type of pain whether that be physical emotional or mental we equate that pain with anxiety but a couple of years ago one of my podcast guests changed this equation for me and i want to share that one with you today pain plus reflection equals progress it shows us that all of us experience pain but when we add reflection to it it can lead to progress the most amazing thing about this equation that if you remove the word reflection you lose progress and all you're left with is pain today i'm going to share with you 11 reflections 11 techniques that you can use to turn pain into progress the guest that said that to me was none other than the author of principles and founder of bridgewater associates ray dalio i want to start off by sharing with you a story that was often told by the buddha this story was about the journey of a person and this person came across a tumultuous river when they saw this river they knew that if they set foot inside this river they would get dragged away with the current they realized that they would have to build somewhat of a vehicle or mode of transport to get to the other side they started to get a log and they thought maybe that was enough and they pushed it out onto the water and the water just completely took away the lock they then realized they would have to build something a lot more stable they got some bamboo they created two rows they tied it up with some rope they even built an ore they got on top and they started to paddle with all their strength and all their energy and finally they made it to the other side this person thought to themselves i can never live without this raft this saved my life this raft is the reason i'm alive so they strapped it to their back and decided to take it wherever they want they started to walk through the forest but they realized it was difficult to maneuver because the raft just kept getting stuck in between the trees and they'd try and pivot and maneuver and try and navigate through but the rafters just getting chipped and broken and they could either continue to try and struggle through with the raft on their back or they could put the raft down and walk through freely so often what's causing us anxiety is what we're holding on to our views of what is normal what we expect what we want to happen the picture we're projecting when you're holding on tightly to something that is slowly being pulled out of your hands it causes you even more pain and anxiety what is it that you need to let go of to reduce your anxiety the second method that i use to overcome anxiety is from a book by wayne dyer called change your thoughts change your mind now i recently got refreshed again with this book when i went on the blinkist app and found it and realized that i could read it in 11 blinks it broke down the key lessons and the key takeaways from each chapter and allowed me to reestablish my connection with this book that i read a long long time ago now we know that we have around 60 to 80 000 thoughts per day the most incredible thing is these thoughts are cycling they're not only repetitive but they're also negative i realize that knowing which of the most repetitive and negative thoughts allows you to spot their trigger do you experience this when you're on social media do you experience this when you're watching a particular show or you're around certain people what we want to do is find that trigger trace that trigger back to its root and reduce that activity in our life often what we think is causing us anxiety is different from the root of where it started it was wayne dyer who said when we change the way we look at things the things we look at change let's look at our thoughts differently stop thinking that you are your thoughts and that your thoughts are all you are recognizing that we're so much more beyond our thoughts allows us to disconnect and distance from them and then upgrade them towards healthier thoughts now this next principle is from my own book think like a monk and you can even find the audio version on the blinkist app now with this principle it was actually a study by amy versniewski and her team at the yale school of management they wanted to go and research what they believed was the most difficult job in the world hospital cleaners and this was pre-pandemic these were people who had to clean up the hospital rooms hospital beds hospital toilets after people ate and even often people passed away you can only imagine what a challenging and difficult job it is they went and interviewed some hospital cleaners some of them described themselves as cleaners they described the activities that i just stated and described themselves as doing that kind of labor now another group of hospital cleaners they described themselves as healers servers carers transformers they did the same exact work as the other cleaners in the same hospitals but they saw themselves as directly connected towards the healing journey of the patient and the patient's family they saw their work that if they could make an environment clean that that would be better for the patient and the patient's family they saw it as a way of serving someone's journey towards healing this mindset which amy brznewski and scanner team called job crafting is where you look at your work differently so many of us get caught up on that excel spreadsheet we get caught up on that powerpoint presentation we get caught up on doing the actual task but we forget to look up look beyond our laptops look beyond our screens zoom out and think about the impact that our work actually has on others your work may be allowing you to put food on the table and take care of your family it may be helping your children go to a specific school it may be helping them have certain opportunities when you look up from the task and you focus on what your work truly allows you and the people you love to do you start looking far beyond than just that activity think about that today zoom out and that reduces the anxiety it reduces the stress that is attached to the day-to-day task and allows you to look at it from a bird's eye view this one's easy whether you're looking at a beautiful view when you're on a walk or whether you're looking at artwork in your home looking at something that has natural elements can be so inspiring and so calming that you will feel relaxed from the anxiety i find that surrounding myself with artwork or inspirational portraits drives me to thoughts of what those individuals went through what the struggles that they went through are what the challenges they went through and that helps me deal with my anxiety it helps me learn that i'm on the right path i'm trying to make a difference and that i can overcome what i'm going through just as they did now the next four set of principles are also from my book but they come in the form of an acronym called time t-i-m-e now the t stands for thankfulness the incredible thing about gratitude is that when you're present in gratitude you can't be anywhere else that means that if you're having a thankful thought you can't have a worry thought if you're having a grateful thought you can't have an anxious thought what an incredible creation gratitude and thankfulness has to be practiced in a particular way it has to be first of all expressed keeping a gratitude journal is wonderful writing down what you're grateful for is beautiful but it's only when you express it that it starts to have the impact that i'm speaking about the second way it has to be practiced is it has to be specific it has to be specific to the person it has to be something specific that happened recently that's current or even if it happened in the past and the third is it has to be personalized it has to be something that you'd only say to them it's not something that you could send to 20 people and they could all feel it was about them let me give you an example two people come to your home for a party they both text you the day after the party the first person texts you they'd say jay thanks so much the second person texts me and they said jay we had an amazing time we loved meeting all your friends we loved meeting your family it was such a great time and the food was out of this world thank you so much obviously taradi and the games that we played were just so much fun it was the highlight of my year which message is going to make you feel more loved and cared for obviously it's the second because it's not only expressed but it's specific and it's personalized now the amazing thing about gratitude given in that way is that not only is the receiver happy but the giver is so much happier as well the bond that you create when you share that type of thankfulness will start to reduce anxiety in your life because it boosts your immune system it boosts your mood and it boosts your relationships the second letter in the acronym is i for inspiration inspiration helps us deal with anxiety because when we're feeling inspired when we're feeling motivated we're able to use that emotion to help navigate the anxious emotions we're having the way i like to get inspired is by listening to audiobooks it's also by listening to incredible speeches recently i had the fortune of interviewing matthew mcconaughey on my podcast on purpose and i said to him that at one point in my life i used to listen to his oscars acceptance speech from around 2015 every single day it's only five minutes i would listen to in the morning and it would give me this boost of inspiration instead of starting my mornings with looking at my phone and opening up my mind up to news notifications negativity and noise i was starting my day with an inspirational word maybe an inspirational paragraph from a book you love or an inspirational quote now i couldn't make a video without meditation and that's what the m stands for now if you're all wondering saying jay i've tried to meditate i really struggle it doesn't work for me i know that this will what i want you to do is start scheduling time with yourself in your diary in your calendar you would never cancel an important meeting with someone else but we don't even schedule one with ourselves if you start by having that time as your meditation time or you're not on your phone you're not watching tv you're not listening to a message or responding to an email you just sit with yourself and check in with yourself and you ask yourself how am i doing today how do i feel what do i need to do better just checking in with yourself is the beginning of your meditation practice and the e stands for exercise now one of the ways the exercise really becomes different is when you make it collaborative or when you make it competitive if you're collaborative with someone and you have accountability and you both have the same goals it becomes really exciting or if you're someone who's competitive and you want to get out there and play a sport together and see who's improving those are great ways i've even seen families who are now all wearing wearables and they're trying to compete with the kids and the parents to see who can take more steps in one day this next technique is one of my favorite techniques the five four three two one method when you're feeling anxious what's happening is that your mind is either rushing to the past or it's predicting and projecting the future so you're either anxious about something that you experienced before or you're feeling really nervous and anxious about something that might or could happen in the future the best way to come back into the present moment is the five four three two one method you want to start off by looking around wherever you are and noticing the five things you can see it could be the windows the walls the ceilings you then want to focus on the four things you can touch it could be something you're wearing and you really want to feel the texture it could be what you're sitting on just noticing it and really grounding yourself and holding on to that then it's about three things you can hear it could be nothing it could be white noise then the two things you can smell in hell could be a scent you're wearing it could be a flower and then finally the one thing you can taste when you practice this it brings you back into the present moment and helps you not focus on the anxiety of the nervousness but on taking action from exactly where you are a lot of the time we're trying to control anxiety up here and what i find is hard about that is that if you feel like you've got brain fog or you're feeling cloudy it becomes really difficult to find clarity i find using external things can be huge for me i love diffusers and candles because a diffuser is infusing the whole environment with a beautiful scent and it truly changes your mind if you walk into a space just think of a spa as soon as you walk in you feel different because of the scent it could just be a normal room but the center of lavender sandalwood any of these essential oils can truly calm your body right down some people feel that silence creates anxiety and some people feel that sound creates anxiety sometimes i like complete silence it helps me relax and really hear my thoughts and the thoughts that i want to focus on and sometimes i need to turn on some meditation music some ambient music just to have that impact on me please use music in your environments in different rooms in your home to help you achieve different emotions and feelings that you want to feel at that time right now blinkist has a special offer just for our audience go to blinkist.com forward slash j shetty to start your free seven day trial and get twenty five percent off a blinkist premium membership that's blinkist spelled b l i n k i s t dot com forward slash j shetty to get a 25 off and a seven day free trial anxiety is something that we all deal with i deal with it as well and i hope that these techniques and methods have shared with you will help you with your journey and relationship with anxiety

Channel: Jay Shetty

Views: 524,910

Keywords: Bhagavad Gita, Purpose, jay shetty, jay shetty speech, jay shetty interview, jay shetty motivation, jay shetty inspiration, jay shetty relationships, self help, self improvement, self development, personal development, success habits, weekly wisdom, relationship tips, love advice, motivation, inspiration, inspirational video, motivational video

Id: cgMvFRUAd0s

Length: 14min 59sec (899 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 30 2021