18/03/2026
I wanted to share a couple of techniques for people who experience unwanted anxiety. These are known coping strategies and if you give them a go, you might find them helpful. Even if it seems difficult or challenging at first, keep going because the brain learns through repetition.
1. The Unwanted Guest
When anxiety shows up, it is like an unwanted guest at your front door. Now, in polite society we are taught we have to let that guest in, make them a cup of tea, make them feel welcome and allow them to linger, even when it makes us miserable and we want to get on with doing other things.
Instead, if that anxiety comes knocking just think to yourself "no, not right now thank you." Don't invite the guest in. Acknowledge that worry or anxiety and then let it go. You can imagine waving bye to it and even say to yourself, "not right now thanks, it isn't a good time - catch you later."
2. Schedule Worry Time
And leading on from that you can schedule your worry time. This is a really effective technique. If you've told your worry "not right now" you can think of a time, probably a bit later in the day, around 5 or 6pm, when you can sit down and put aside 10 or 15 minutes for worrying.
This stops the anxiety from hijacking your brain. It helps you to get your control back - trying to force worries to stop can seem impossible. It takes the heat out of the worry. Something that seemed catastrophic at 10.00am will most likely have lost some of its power by 6.00pm. It also means you are not fighting your thoughts, you are just saying, "catch you later baby!"
I'd love to hear if you put these strategies into practice, and how you get on with them.
