Feeling anxious? You’re not alone. Everyone has felt anxious at some point in their life. The tension in the body. The sense of nervousness. The restlessness you just can’t seem to shake off. Anxiety can feel like a shadow lurking in the mind until it builds up and one day you’re overwhelmed with uncertainty and unease.

But the fact that you’re here shows that you’re not the type willing to settle. You’re hungry for answers, asking yourself questions like: Why do I feel anxious? Where does it come from? How can I feel better and prevent these anxious feelings?

The truth is you have the power to influence your anxious feelings through factors you can control. Once you understand its source and master the right strategies, you’ll not only annihilate anxious feelings, but also open doors to a life of more joy, happiness, gratitude, and true aliveness.

Why do I feel anxious?

Simply put, the root cause of anxiety is a pattern of focus. Whether it’s conscious or subconscious, anxious feelings are a result of the simple truth that what you focus on, you will feel. These patterns can surface even when the object of focus is not accurate or real.

But the good news is you have power to disrupt these patterns and it all starts with becoming aware of them.

“Where focus goes, energy flows.” – Tony Robbins

Patterns of focus

Three main patterns of focus determine the quality of your life. Every moment of your life, your brain is focusing on these three patterns of questions, determining whether you feel anxious or alive.

1. The first pattern is, do you spend more time focusing on what you have or what’s missing? Consistently focusing on what’s missing will never sustain happiness no matter how successful you are. The reality is that what’s wrong is always available, but so is what’s right. When you focus on what you have, you feel grateful, alive, and excited about life. 
2. The next is how much you focus on what you can control or can’t control. Focusing on what you can’t control will cause feelings like anxiety, frustration, or anger. On the other hand, focusing on what you can control cultivates feelings like joy, confidence, achievement, or gratitude.
3. Last is how often you focus on the past, the present, or the future. Learning from the past is useful, but living in the past gets you nowhere because you cannot control the past. Similarly, too much focus on the future can rob you of the joy in the moment. The happiest people live in the present but know how to anticipate the future.

“The past does not equal the future, unless you live there.” – Tony Robbins

Regarding the future, understand this: anxiety is simply FEAR. Or as Napoleon Hill put it, False Evidence Appearing Real, which means it’s an imagination of the future. But so is faith. The difference is that fear is imagination undirected. Fear grows automatically like weeds because our brains evolved over millions of years to protect us from life-threatening dangers – like escaping saber-toothed tigers. Faith, on the other hand, is choosing to trust and keep moving forward, believing that life is happening  for you, not to you.

How to change your focus with physiology and certainty

How do you radically change your focus? You start with your physiology. Our bodies are intimately connected to our emotions. So, if you’re feeling anxious try these simple, effective ways to alter your physiology:

• Move your body – Sit up straight. Stretch your legs. Do something that creates energy in your body. Just a few minutes of exercise can instantly change your emotional state. If that’s not possible in your current environment, go outdoors, to the restroom, or to a gym. The movement will release any built-up anxiety that’s stored in your body.

• The power of breath – The way we breathe can also produce different emotional states. How do you breathe when feeling anxious? How about when you’re relaxed? We know this intuitively, but when someone’s feeling anxious, the breath is short and shallow. So, start with deep breaths that completely fill your lungs. One breathing pattern that Tony Robbins uses when he feels stressed is the 1:4:2 pattern that you can learn here.

Changing your physiology alters your biochemistry and has the power to immediately interrupt any anxious pattern of focus. To prevent the pattern from returning, harness the power of certainty.

The power of certainty

After shifting your physiology, you’ll find it easier to tap into your mental and emotional resources, letting you get a more accurate view of your situation. If we’re being realistic, then you’ve faced and conquered anxious feelings in the past. 

Think back to a time when you dealt with anxiety before. How did you manage to persevere? Which breakthrough allowed you to triumph over the anxious feelings? How did that experience help you grow as a person?

Recalling how we successfully navigated tough emotions in the past provides compelling evidence of our inherent ability to master them.

Priming: A potent tool for annihilating anxiety

The above strategies are incredibly powerful but like anything worth doing, it requires practice to retrain your patterns of focus. Priming is a tool Tony Robbins developed to train your brain and physiology daily so when life throws you a curveball, your automatic reactions are ones that serve you. 

Priming works because emotional fitness is like working out a muscle: the more you use it, the stronger it becomes. It might feel uncomfortable at first. But with enough repetition, you’ll see significant progress.

The reality is that you have a choice. You either prime yourself or let the world prime you. And with the media’s negative bias of “if it bleeds, it leads”, it’s never been more important to stand guard at the door of your mind and prime yourself for a life of joy, love, gratitude, and anything else that your heart desires.