One Simple Hack to Address Your Anxiety

Anxiety is an overwhelming thing. Sometimes sucking you so far into fear it’s hard to imagine another way. But that’s exactly what anxiety wants to do. It has a field day with whatever you feed it, and it wants to be fed something substantial. Something that gives it purpose in your brain. But today, I want to help you end that using one simple hack to address your anxiety. 

If you suffer from anxiety, you’re probably one of the many who are looking for the quick fix out of it. It’s exhausting, life-sucking and joy forbidding. But like most things in life, the magic bullet doesn’t exist, and for most of us, anxiety doesn’t just vanish. And expecting it will can bring maddening fear when it doesn’t happen. 

The good news is there are ways to deal with anxiety – to address it head-on.

It first begins by knowing how anxiety works. To know it’s trick and play the game to beat it. What you need to know is anxiety is always going to feed on something as long as you let it. And it likes substantial things like your health, your marriage, your job or your kids. 

But just because it sets out to attack to pull you into the spiral doesn’t mean we have to let it and that’s what we talk about on today’s podcast. 

I interview Hannah Brencher, who’s lived through it and inside this podcast, we dive into her story with debilitating depression. I ask her to share her story, how she found a way through it and out of it, and how she deals with lingering anxiety and depression today. 

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anxiety attack

The thing about anxiety is it will steal whatever you give it. Give it a millimeter, and it will take an inch. It doesn’t seem to have any remorse. But there are ways through it and around it – it just takes knowing how to play your cards. 

Inside the podcast, Hannah shared such valuable wisdom to regain power over anxiety, but the most powerful is the idea that it happens in the slow change. 

In the daily rhythms and routines, in the process of life, that’s where healing comes from. Sure, it’s not glamorous or as sexy as a 5-step program, but it’s powerful. Her one simple hack to address anxiety comes down to one decision you make in the next five minutes.

the one thing

Part of the reason anxiety is so powerful is because it fills us with overwhelm. That’s often why programs or instant success ideas don’t work. They confuse more than they heal, giving anxiety the upper hand. 

But one powerful thing is making one simple choice. 

As Hannah states in the podcast, “When anxiety strikes one simple way to get out is to ask yourself, what is one thing I can do in the next five minutes that will help.”

It doesn’t have to be something grand – because change happens in the small. But making that one choice and having the discipline to follow through can help you take the necessary steps to free yourself from it. 

One step in front of the other – one five minutes and then another. Keep making small and steady choices, focusing on the one thing until you sense your freedom from the grips of the fear. 

battle plan

Maybe you choose to call a friend to ask them to tell you the truth. Perhaps you change out of your pajamas into real clothes, hop in the shower, pour a cup of hot tea, or walk outside for a breath of fresh air. There are a thousand little things you could choose, and so do what feels right. 

What you’ll find is that being creatures of habit, you’ll probably rely on that same choice over and over again. That’s when it becomes your battle plan – a plan we all need to win at life. 

Creating your battle plan is simple – if you struggle with anxiety, create a list of 3-5 things you can choose to do in the next five minutes. Then work yourself through it. Sometimes the last thing you have the energy for, during an anxiety attack, is making one more decision. Your battle plan does this for you. 

my plan

My plan looks something like this: 

1. Turn on a worship song {right now it’s this one} and commit to singing at least the chorus to myself. 
2. Get outside for fresh air – rain or shine.
3. Take a hot bath {most of my anxiety hits at night}.
4. Call a friend, not text, but call and voice my concern. 
5. Do a few stretches and take some deep breaths.

Those are my five-minute action steps. Things that are simple, things I don’t have to think about but bring me back to reality. Of course, I also have a more in-depth battle plan to encourages me to take a break from social media, close down work a bit earlier and get outside for some physical exercise. 

It’s knowing your triggers and also what lights you up and making a plan to do more of what fills you and less of what doesn’t.

So what’s your plan? 

Create your list and keep it handy. Then, when you feel a season of anxiety creeping in, make one simple choice you can complete in the next five minutes and keep repeating until you feel the weight is lifted. 

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