Anxiety is the body and mind responding to situations that are perceived to be dangerous or frightening.  It results in our instinctive fight or flight response being activated in order to fight off the danger or to run to safety.  Anxiety can be overcome by learning how to control this instinctive response so that you are not overwhelmed by it.  This fight or flight response should not be activated in response to non threatening situations where you should be in control.  Your body is physically reacting in preparation for a life or death struggle that is totally inappropriate to what is actually occurring. 

Suffering from anxiety does not mean that you are ill.  You are simply responding inappropriately to stimuli in your environment or even your imagination.  This is something that you can unlearn.  By learning about your anxiety and the causes of it you will find that you can more easily cope with it.  Anxiety is likely to have a connection with something specific such as a situation, person or place.

Keeping an anxiety journal is a great way to help you identify what is causing your anxiety.  Make a note in your journal every day to record your anxiety levels and what you were doing at the time.  Rate each entry on a scale from 1 to 10 to indicate your level of anxiety.  Did you avoid any situations because your feared they will have made you anxious?  If so make note of the things that you didn’t do due to your anxiety.  You should also make notes about what you were thinking in the periods leading up to your anxiety.  By doing so this will help you to identify whether your anxiety was caused by your negative thoughts.  Once you have been updating your anxiety journal for a while there should be enough information within it to give you some clues to what is causing your anxiety.  So be sure to read what you have written every so often.

You don’t have to continue to live with your anxiety.  There are so many things you can do to remove causes of stress from your life.  You can find yourself a relaxing hobby.  If you have something to focus your attention on it helps you to forget about the stresses in your life.  You might like to read a book or to take up art or photography.  Why not try yoga, Tai Chi, Qi Gong or meditation?  These have all been proven to help reduce stress.  Don’t underestimate the influence your diet is having on your anxiety.  Try and eat a balanced healthy diet.  Make sure that you are getting sufficient sleep.  Treat yourself every now and then to a massage or a reflexology treatment.  Caffeine is a stimulant and can make you more prone to anxiety so try to cut down on tea and coffee.  If relaxation is difficult for you then why not buy yourself a relaxing hypnosis MP3 download. 

When you find yourself in a situation where you are preoccupied with anxious thoughts then you should try to distract yourself away from what you are thinking.  In order to distract yourself you should shift your attention to what is happening around you instead of what is going on inside your head.  Try looking around you and noticing the details in the things that you see and pay attention to the noises and smells.  By becoming absorbed in the outer world instead of your inner world you will find that you are able to forget about your anxiety.

For further help on coping with anxiety you could consider one of the anxiety self help guides that are available online.