Don’t let these anti-anxiety tips slip your mind.
Dr. Daniel Amen, a double board-certified psychiatrist and brain-imaging researcher in California, has shared four solutions for managing the mind and alleviating anxiety.
Addressing his 2.8 million TikTok followers last week, Amen revealed some shocking statistics about anxiousness, “It’s just rampant — doubled in children, tripled in adults.”
Stress and anxiety can affect the whole body, causing inflammation, pain, restlessness and stomach problems. In-kind, reducing stress and anxiety, as often and in as many ways as possible, is vital for improving overall health.
Amen detailed how doom thinking builds to a fever pitch, “So many people that are anxious, they have a bad thought, and then they make it worse, and then they make that thought worse. It’s like your mind is just out of control.”
He said that gaining control requires some cognitive strength training. “You gotta manage your mind, and there’s a process. People who stay healthy do physical workouts every day, you have to do mental workouts,” he explained.
In the TikTok, which has drawn more than 36,000 views, Amen recommends diaphragmatic breathing, relaxing music, hypnosis and a name for your brain.
Diaphragmatic breathing
Amen said he’s a big fan of diaphragmatic breathing, like taking twice as long to exhale as you do to inhale. “I teach my patients four seconds in, hold it just for a second, eight seconds out,” he explained.
He calls this technique “so helpful” — and he’s not alone in backing this breathing style.
Studies have shown that big, slow breaths send more oxygen to the brain, which helps to activate the parasympathetic nervous system, resulting in a calmer state. This breathing technique is also beneficial for readying the body for sleep.
Relaxing music
People who experience anxiety should listen to soothing music to calm their minds, Amen said.
The benefits of tuneage may go far beyond momentary relief.
Researchers at the University of Exeter in the UK found that people who “engage in music” throughout their lives tend to have improved memory and better overall brain health as they age.
Hypnosis
Amen also shouts out hypnosis as a tool that can support stress relief and lessen anxiety.
NYC hypnotherapist Elena Mosaner explained how and why hypnosis works: “What we do is use relaxation techniques,” so that patients “enter a relaxed state of mind, [and their] subconscious is open to suggestions.
“Our conscious mind is the mind we use when we’re fully awake,” she told The Post. “Your subconscious mind is the deeper part of who you are and contains information such as your beliefs, habits, and patterns — basically, your view of the world.”
Name your brain
Give your brain a name and Amen assures the dissonance will quiet your mind. “We teach people how to gain psychological distance from the noise in their head by giving their mind a name,” he said.
Steven Hayes, author of “A Liberated Mind,” also encourages anxious folk to name their brain and then introduce themselves to it as they would a stranger at a party.
Hayes explained that naming the mind creates a healthy separation between thought and belief. “When you listen to someone else, you can choose to agree with what they say or not. … That is the posture you want to take with your internal voice.”
