Defeat Anxiety, Better your Life

As college students, when we have a problem all too often we feel alone. Many students who have anxiety deal with it every day without help, being too embarrassed to admit these feelings at a time when we want to fit in the most. We also may not know we have it. However, we need to realize we are not alone and can get help to overcome anxiety. The Institute of HeartMath has done research to help recognize anxiety and help triumph the anxious feelings.

The National Institute of Mental Health states that “40 millio
American adults- that’s 18% of the population- have anxiety disorders” (Overcoming Anxiety; HeartMath.Org January 2010). This means that 40 million people have feelings of “some type of fear, including unease, worry, apprehension, dread, powerlessness, or a sense of impeding danger” (Overcoming Anxiety). We need to realize then that we are not alone when we experience symptoms such as “the mind goes blank or other cognitive functions are lost, obsessive thoughts, phobias, chronic worry, ongoing unease, sweaty palms, tension headaches, trembling, difficulty breathing, dizziness, panic attacks, increased heart rate, and palpitations” (Overcoming Anxiety).

Although many students can suffer from symptoms of anxiety, everybody is different. Anxiety can come at many different times in our lives, such as during final exams, a death or illness of a loved one, problems at the workplace or not working at all, during relationships, and when money is short. It is when these feelings become extreme enough to effect everyday life situations that it threatens one’s well-being. This is where the Institute of HeartMath’s research can help before anxiety causes “fatigue, sleep disorders, hormone imbalances, health problems, and premature aging” (Overcoming Anxiety). Their “scientific research and controlled studies have shown your own ‘heart intelligence’ holds the key” to transforming one who has anxiety (Overcoming Anxiety). What they mean by “heart intelligence” is whether or not your heart is coherent or not. A coherent heart is one with rhythm patterns that are smooth and ordered, as in a sine wave. The HeartMath Institute found that emotions such as anxiety can disrupt these heart rhythm patterns and make them more jagged, disordered, and irregular. This causes elevated stress levels which makes us more vulnerable to disease (Exploring the Role of the Heart in Human Performance; HeartMath.Org January 2010).

The Institute of HeartMath explains their “HeartMath Tip” to get the heart back to being coherent and reduce the feelings of anxiety as:
• “Notice and admit what you are feeling
• Try to name the feeling
• Tell yourself to ease as you gently focus in your heart, relax as you breathe, and ease the stress out” (Overcoming Anxiety).

These tips are vital to becoming a more happy and relaxed individual. College students experience so much anxiety in such a small amount of time that we need all the help we can get. All the benefits of reducing anxiety can help everyone, but especially college students. By reducing anxiety our “stress hormones [can] decrease, [our] energy level increases, [and we] feel better”, which can help in all tough times (Overcoming Anxiety). We can also create “stronger, more satisfying relationships” in a time when we are meeting so many new people (Overcoming Anxiety). Furthermore, when our futures are just beginning and we feel like we can’t even control our own lives, by reducing anxiety “quality of life increases [and] feeling of empowerment” (Overcoming Anxiety). As college students we are living on our own for the first time, away from our family and friends. We can easily think negatively about what could be happening to them but reducing anxiety can “decrease projections of worst-case scenarios” (Overcoming Anxiety). In addition, when studying for any test or exam all of us can use an “improved memory [and] cognitive functions”, which are benefits of not having anxiety (Overcoming Anxiety). College is said to be the best time of our lives, so we need to make the best of this once in a lifetime experience.