How to Rewire Your Anxious Brain: 6 Expert-Recommended Tips

You can use plenty of proven-effective techniques when you want to learn how to rewire your anxious brain.

Living with anxiety can be challenging daily, causing you to miss amazing opportunities and experiences.

Instead of succumbing to the falsehoods your brain is developing, you can rewire your brain to its best possible state with a unique, evidence-based solution.

What Is Neuroplasticity?

Neuroplasticity is a fascinating element of brain processes that significantly contributes to the development of anxiety, a primal response.

Neuroplasticity is when your brain forms connections when faced with specific stimuli.

For example, when children touch a hot stove for the first time, their brains learn that the element is hot and will not be touched in the future.

Interestingly, neuroplasticity also relates to developing mental health disorders, such as anxiety.

You might find your brain forms connections to stimuli that boost your anxiety, engaging your fight-or-flight response.

As a result, you might need to rewire your brain to experience fewer triggers daily.

The more anxious you feel in certain situations, the more likely your brain will be to form negative scripts in this cutting-edge neuroscience.

Over time, your brain will run these scripts over and over, creating an automatic response.

Unfortunately, this can lead to considerable maladaptive behaviors to try to ease the intensity of an anxiety attack.

Whether you want to eliminate manifestations of anxiety, have better relationships, or live more comfortably, there are ways to get started.

That said, it will require plenty of work on your end but can be well worth the effort.

How to Rewire Your Anxious Brain

It’s true when they say that practice makes perfect.

You can create new, healthier behaviors instead of anxious ones by continually working on your neuroplasticity.

Let’s get into some of the recommended exercises you can start doing to rewire the pain behind anxiety.

Tip 1: Assessing Your Distorted Thoughts

One of the most significant contributors to anxiety is distorted thoughts, as these are what can make you anxious in the first place.

Your thinking brain may evaluate a normal situation as triggering, causing your fight-or-flight to become engaged.

As a result, evaluating distorted thoughts can make a massive difference in any type of anxiety.

Also known as reality testing, this concept was initially developed by Sigmund Freud, one of the fathers of psychology.

Reality testing allows people with actual anxiety disorders to change their perspectives of experiences to reduce feelings of anxiousness.

With this process, you’ll be analyzing whether your feelings are based on reality or if they’re concepts you’ve developed in your mind.

When you’re able to identify that a specific situation isn’t threatening, it can help lessen feelings of discomfort.

You’ll also be able to develop key techniques to assist you in the future.

The more you analyze stimuli and determine they’re not truly threatening, you’re rewiring your brain not to be the center of worry.

Tip 2: Start Meditating Daily

Meditating is far more than a relaxing exercise; it can also greatly benefit the physical state of your brain.

Some research suggests regular meditation can help build more grey matter in your brain, helping with mental illness.

The more grey matter you have, the more emotional control you can have over your internal strength.

Major thinkers with healthy levels of emotional regulation are far less likely to experience anxiety symptoms of human suffering.

Regular meditation is the top practical advice to boost neuroplasticity and form new, healthier connections.

By implementing regular mindfulness exercises, you can help support your body to manage stressful situations more effortlessly.

Another massive advantage of meditation is it helps you reframe situations on the surface.

For example, briefly meditating when faced with triggering stimuli can help you understand you’re not in danger.

This step can help you form new long-term connections while also offering benefits in the short term.

Tip 3: Never Stop Learning

Although the human brain is a marvel, it’s also often looked at as a muscle with neural pathways.

If you don’t train your muscles regularly, they become frail, and you become less strong.

This process also occurs with the brain; instead of lifting weights, your mental strength comes from learning.

If you stop yourself from having new learning experiences, your brain’s neuroplasticity can suffer.

The brain must face new situations to form new connections as the old ones die.

Otherwise, you’ll experience several symptoms of anxiety, such as forgetfulness, irritability, and fatigue.

Fortunately, there are many ways you can keep your brain active throughout your lifetime.

Some of the most commonly used exercises to train your brain against anxiety challenges include:

• Puzzles
• Math exercises
• Learning new languages
• Taking up a new hobby, like model building
• Creating artistic projects
• Playing and listening to music

Tip 4: Start Focusing On Your Environment

As an anxiety sufferer, it’s easy to let everyday things slip through the cracks.

You might find as you fixate on less critical concepts, the major elements of daily living are forgotten.

For example, you might begin to notice your apartment is getting messier, or you’re spending less time on self-care.

Far too often, we forget the importance of our environment, which can also be a major mental disruptor.

Just like picking up a new hobby, maintaining habits can be a fantastic way to make new brain connections to boost neuroplasticity.

Our recommendation is to take the time to focus on improving your personal space so your mind can feel free and clear.

There are multiple ways you can improve your environment, including:

• Decluttering

There’s nothing more distracting than being surrounded by too many belongings and clutter.

Take some time to get rid of anything you don’t regularly use, clearing your space so you can clear your mind.

• Set up a Cleaning Schedule

Keeping your space sanitized is essential for physical and mental health.

Setting a specific day each week for cleaning can be a great idea.

You’ll greatly appreciate being able to keep your environment in its best condition.

• Handle Daily Chores

Focusing on daily chores is essential if you’re not ready to go above and beyond to improve your space.

Make sure you go to get your mail, make your bed, and do laundry.

These small steps can greatly reduce feelings of anxiety.

Tip 5: Consciously Shift From Negative Thinking

As mentioned, negative thoughts can wreak havoc on your daily life.

Once you’ve mastered the concept of analyzing situations to determine if they’re genuinely threatening, this is the next step.

Learning how to shift from negative to positive thinking consciously is a skill everyone with anxiety should work on.

Not only does this simplistic technique help to make it easier to analyze threatening situations, but it can also give you a more positive outlook.

With regular practice, you can experience several fantastic benefits, allowing you to eliminate some of your anxiety.

When you encounter negative thoughts, don’t dwell on them but instead, consciously look at the situation positively.

For example, if you find that being around bees makes you anxious, don’t focus on the fact they might sting you.

Instead, think about how essential bees are to the ecosystem, ensuring we have access to fruits, flowers, and more.

This process will immediately lessen your discomfort and reduce the likelihood of feeling anxious.

Tip 6: Train Your Brain Using Neuro-Linguistic Programming

Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) is one of the most popular therapeutic options for dealing with the effects of anxiety.

NLP techniques work on a person’s behavioral patterns when faced with specific stimuli.

With the help of exercises, you’ll focus on reframing situations, pacing how you work through them, and more.

Another massive tenet of Neuro-Linguistic Programming is grounding.

Grounding is a technique that can help to change your brain’s chemistry, reducing your fight-or-flight response to different forms of anxiety.

When you ground yourself, you’re bringing your mind into a calming environment, helping you realize you’re safe and in control.

With the help of the following anxiety books or resources, you can begin your journey to reducing anxious stimulation using NLP:

• NLP: Anxiety: Reprogram Your Brain to Eliminate Stress, Fear & Social Anxiety – Modern Psychology Publishing

NLP: Anxiety: Reprogram Your Brain to Eliminate Stress, Fear & Social Anxiety is a great tool to help you work through thoughts of worry and unwarranted fear.

Using the powerful coping techniques in this guide, you can learn how to bring yourself out of negative thoughts and have a better fear response.

You’ll also find six effective strategies for your major brain circuits to have better control of anxiety.

• Your Mind Is Your Home – Kamran Bedi

Your Mind Is Your Home is a great read that focuses on many concepts revolving around anxiety and your emotional brain functions.

You’ll find traditional therapeutic steps and more modern approaches rooted in Neuro-Linguistic Programming.

With this guide, you’ll unlock many tips to help you manage your emotions and be more present in the now, like behavioral therapy or cognitive therapy.

• The Power of Your Subconscious Mind – Joseph Murphy

The Power of Your Subconscious Mind is a popular audiobook for a good reason.

Listeners will learn fundamental tips to help boost their inner peace, happiness, and success.

It also takes a unique approach to evaluating oneself, with many basic tenets of NLP.

You’ll read through powerful coping techniques to help you manage your daily worries.

There are also tricks to work on autonomic responses to reduce negative emotional habits.

By the end, you’ll have effective coping strategies using expert advice.

Effectively Rewiring Your Anxious Brain

When you need to learn how to rewire your anxious brain, techniques like Neuro-Linguistic Programming are essential.

You can analyze your fight-or-flight response from its core, helping to eliminate feelings of self-doubt and discomfort.

Over time, NLP can significantly improve your brain connections, helping you to feel more confident in all situations.