Controlling your Thinking 5 - Anxiety

Anxiety
Worry time app
Breathe 2 relax
Google-centre for clinical interventions - workbooks

Fatigue, out of control, phobia
,-response to perception of threat
Fear- very extreme danger short term.
Anxiety-general world feels unsafe, partly aroused, long term threat- motor tension.
Leads to lots of physical effects.
Effects cognitive functions, memory
Effects behaviours
Effects performance - can improve performance, but to much lead to hyperstress
Anxiety disorder - in very serious case.  This impairs our functions
Generalised anxiety disorder - general tendency to worry. Muscle tension, fatigue, concentration, irritability.

State anxiety,- due to circumstances
Trait anxiety -due to our own personality. Can be physical, even if we know about it.

Common threats
-Negative appraisal
- conflict,  failure, loss
Anxiety begets anxiety
-Mindfulness may help

Behaviours
-Use behaviour to dispute anxiety. When logical doesn't work, use behaviour.
-Trying to say right thing or self focused lead to anxiety. Over thinking.
- Don't think to much
- somatic - drugs, alcohol
Safety behaviour: over planning, bottled water, worrying, perfectionism,
End up spending to much time worrying will not be productive .

--- good mental hygiene
Daily physical exercise helps
Good nutrition
Good sleep
Not smoking or excess drinking
Practise cognitive flexibility - let go of the "I should " thinking. Identify the faulty reasoning
Anxiety creates cognitive bias - just need to recognise the anxiety.
Notice the over thinking.
Exposure - learn to face the worries by confronting it.
Make one phone call a day if we are socially anxious
Deep relaxation - When relax our bodies, it will break anxiety cycle.
- Progressive muscle relaxation
- medication like valium relaxes muscle
- anti depressants also relieve anxiety. 

Controlling Your Thinking

This post is more about using psychology to improve our mind. So what has this got to do with Finance and gettting wealth? Everything.

A healthy mind is what is required to generate wealth. A mind that is bogged down, like a sinking ship struggles to survive, let alone achieve anything extraordinary. So the post here is a collection of notes that was taken during a course called "Change Your Thinking" which is based on Cognitive Training.

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Brain constantly produce thoughts. Can have different interpretation or meanings. Eg what have you been up to? Why do people have different interpretation. Prior events may influence this. Personality, culture context (family values), lessons learnt early in life, our perception of people, how safe our environment felt when young.

Challenge our beliefs, not enough to just understand. Changed the way we think, then that will change the way we feel.

Thoughts - When anxious thoughts are faster.

CBT: counselling, stress management,
Change way we think, Changing the way we feel, change way we behave
- Include cognitive strategies, behavioural strategies, mindfulness strategies.
- aim to reframe ways of thinking: upsetting emotions, unhelpful behaviour.
Adaptive behaviour- will help us achieve goal.
Maladaptive- do things that are not helpful

Cognition - way we think, thoughts, beliefs, perception.  Beliefs can influence thoughts.
emotions - anxious, angry, can lead to threat focused thoughts, lead to negative thoughts depression.
behaviour

Mindfulness - watch the thoughts without believing it.

Emotions - help us to survive, motivate behaviour,  pleasant /unpleasant, adaptive /maladaptive

Temperanment- is the biological part of our personality, gene . Cannot change.
Can learn to react and think differently.
Inflexible thinking can be maladaptive.
Genes, history, environment influence way we feel.
People assume their thoughts are correct.
Thoughts and beliefs can be changed.
Develop cognitive flexibility - reduce unpleasant emotions, increase adaptive behaviour.