All of us have to cope with anxiety as we navigate a course though our lives. For many of us anxiety can become excessive and can affect our quality of life. Practical steps may at first be necessary to manage our anxiety such as learning how to cope with panic attacks. Diet, fitness levels, sleep hygiene and work/life balance are all contributory factors in the level of anxiety we experience. Mindfulness, meditation, massage, bodily therapies in general, yoga and 5 rhythms dancing are all very useful techniques to help us both cope with and alleviate anxiety in general.

For many of us it is important to see anxiety as a consequence of an avoidance of painful emotional experiences. Years of suppression of painful emotions not only creates a tremendous tension within the body, which is inevitably experienced as anxiety, but also leads to somatic pain and eventually to physical illness. What I outlined above may be enough to change this. However, it is usually the case that in conjunction with this, a facing up to our avoidance and a working through of the painful emotions we have been suppressing, is ultimately necessary to permanently reduce our anxiety levels.