Enjoy an Anxiety Free Day in Four Steps

Wouldn't you love an anxiety-free day? Is that even possible? While living fully free from anxiety isn’t humanly possible (or even desirable, as anxiety can be a positive force), we all do have the power to make our days less about anxiety and more about mental health and wellbeing. To borrow from solution-focused therapy, what would your day be like if anxiety weren’t a problem? What would you put in its place? How would you live and thrive today without anxiety in the way? Thinking about those answers, let's create your anxiety-free day.

4 Steps to Creating Your Anxiety-Free Day

What can you do to live for what you want and create your day with low anxiety? These four steps can guide you to an anxiety-free day:

1. Create a morning routine. Exercise, meditate, stretch, enjoy a cup of coffee or tea in the stillness of the early hour—whatever gets you moving in a calm way. Devote part of that routine to contemplation of the day ahead of you, and set an anxiety goal. In what areas will you experience anxiety but persevere rather than avoid?
2. Name it. Choose a symbol that represents your anxiety-free day. How do you want to be today? Strong? Maybe you’ll call your day “Ant Day” because ants are really, really strong. Courageous? Perhaps name your day “First Responder Day” because you’ll take action despite anxiety.
3. Be intentional and proactive about your goal. Rather than getting caught up in the day’s anxieties, worries, and fears, identify ways you do things during the day to meet your anxiety goal. How can you reduce anxiety so you can continue to act rather than avoid?
4. Be mindful of your moments. Live each moment fully. Attend to what needs to be done in the present rather than worrying about the past or being fearful of the future. And live with your daily anxiety goal in mind.

Making any day one free of anxiety starts inside each of us. We’ll begin with a morning routine, name our days, act intentionally toward our goals, and be fully present in each moment. Then we’re equipped to take actions big and small throughout the day to create our vision of living free from anxiety.

I discuss naming our days in this video. I invite you to tune in.