Regarding the question, 'What is Anxiety?' the answer is not always straightforward. When you experience the emotion of threat, your body creates a stress response while trying to keep you safe. This stimulus tells you to fight the danger, flee from it or freeze. These are normal reactions, but if your body reacts this way to situations that are not life-threatening, it can cause anxiety, which can be coped with the help of the 3-3-3 rule.
People usually focus on their physical health, and that's the best thing to do. Still, at the same time, they tend to forget the importance of mental health. Mental health tract problems like anxiety and depression affect millions of people yearly. In addition, the Covid-19 pandemic is having an alarming impact on people's mental health, with other mental problems increasing daily. People usually ignore the feel-good vibe of life as they want instant success in their lives.
It is okay not to feel 100% happy all the time or to experience unexplained anxiousness. Please take a moment to see, absorb, and identify it. Accept it. Here is the 3-3-3 rule to manage anxiety and mental health from its core to work on.
Most people experience occasional anxiety, a standard part of life. People have short-term anxiety about work, family, relationships, and health concerns. For example, maybe you get exceptionally nervous or anxious before a big event or presentation.
When anxiety becomes chronic or overwhelming, it could meddle with your ability to function in everyday life and lessens the overall quality of life, leading to ignoring responsibilities, people, and activities. If anxiety affects your life to this degree, it might be more than occasional anxious feelings. You may have an Anxiety disorder. As stated by the National Institute of Mental Health, common Anxiety disorders include:
Mindfulness is a method of reducing anxiety by looking closely at the current moment. Training usually contains meditation, similar activities, and great exercises to help you focus on the present moment without creating opinions, whether they are good or bad.
The 3-3-3 rule is a simple Mindfulness technique for anxiety. The method is to name three things they can see, identify three sounds they can hear, and three things they can touch.
Touch
So the idea behind this is to involve your senses of touch with consideration. Always try to move body parts with it. For example- try to move your ankles or knees, arms, or any similar body parts with it. This will help you to explore more bodily feelings.
Try twitching your toes, circling your ankles, pushing your hands, etc. Concentrate on the attention to your body and leveling yourself at the present wink.
This meditation of the 3-3-3 rule can help you focus and calm your body. This technique can relieve anxiety, center your mind, and bring your attention to the present moment.
To get your mind in line with the current issue, this is a second way that you can use. Sound is the 2nd thing you have to think of. It would help if you tried to remember items within your visual range and also think about the things within the hearing range of ordinary humans. In this technique, identify three sounds that you can hear right at the moment. Start paying attention to the exact details of your atmosphere. For example, the volume of each sound, how far away they're coming from, their sources, etc.
To control anxiety, sight is the last and most significant thing you should remember. Try to look for something that surrounds you for a moment. Point out three physical objects in your immediate vicinity. Identify each one. Scrutinize them. For example, you see a bookshelf, a glass of water, and a lamp. Pay close attention to each object. Does the glass have a particular color or design? Is it clear? And what's inside the glass? Are there any books on the shelf? Which ones are paperbacks, and which are hardcovers? Taking many details about your immediate environment will convey your mind to yourself.
It's not easy to live with Anxiety disorder. But managing panic attacks and anxiety can become more manageable if you know the proper reduction techniques. If you've constantly been struggling with managing anxiety and the feeling of fear, you need to try the 3-3-3 rule. This 333 rule is a familiar and informal technique for managing stress. It aims to help you ground yourself and calm down when you feel particularly anxious.
The following are the alternative ways to get away from anxiety. The below-mentioned techniques are natural and cause no harm to your mental health.
You should think of your surrounding world without passing judgment. It's a pleasurable exercise that delights youngsters from their anxieties. This meditation can be used in children with focusing issues to make them more assertive in their day-to-day games.
Children who are a little older can practice the 5-4-3-2-1 method. This technique asks them to name five things they can see, four things they can touch, three things they can hear, two things they can smell, and one thing they can taste.
It might not always feel like you have control over your life, but you do. You can rely on your talents to guide you through your panic attacks and anxiety to overcome difficult situations and personal challenges. It would be best to stay connected to your feelings, especially during tough times. It's better to validate your feelings and emotions when it gets tricky. Despite feeling anxious, you still have the opportunity to be present if you know how to use some grounding techniques like the 3-3-3 rule. Remember that you're the only one in control of your state of mind, and make space for emotional processing to feel better.
