Dear Sheetal:

Is psychotherapy/ counseling something that is available to you?

To manage and slowly heal from anxiety it takes a whole lot of work over a long, long time, making progress slowly. It takes slowing down our thinking and becoming mindful, living mindfully (look up the Mindful category on the home page under BLOG, if you’d like). It takes persisting with what works even when it doesn’t work every time and even though it doesn’t work perfectly (the yoga and meditation you mentioned.

It takes trying different practices and seeing what works and what doesn’t and then at any time you feel anxious choose one practice that is practical for you to do, be it yoga or meditation or exercise, a long walk outside, or soaking the sun if it is a pleasant, sunny day. You can make a list of healthy distractions such as what I mentioned and pick any one of them during any anxious moment.

Psychotherapy can help in teaching skills, a major one being Mindfulness as well as looking at the origin of your anxiety. In Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), you make the connection between thoughts, emotions and behavior. There are exercises in CBT that are available in books and online outside therapy itself.

I hope to read from you again.

anita