7 ways to deal with Performance Anxiety in your daily Life!

In today's day to day life, stress regarding completion of tasks has become quite common due to which anxiety regarding work takes place. Many of you might have ignored it but it have great effects on the mental health in a long run. Such times when stress due to performance or task completion becomes out of control and continuous it is found that person may be suffering from Performance anxiety disorder. The disease may seem as common but it can be quite dangerous in a long run if not controlled. According to various surveys 9 - 25% of males and 6 - 16% of females suffer from Performance anxiety. Which reflects that it leaves an adverse affects both on men as well as women. So let's find out what Performance Anxiety disorder exactly is and how you can deal with it!

WHAT IS PERFORMANCE ANXIETY?

Performance anxiety is a strong or excessive feeling of fear and worry related to being able to perform well in any certain task. It can be related to any task whether to perform well in the exams, perform well in your job, performing good in any sport or event, etc. Performance anxiety can impact people of all genders and age groups, it can begin all of a sudden or can develop gradually over the time. Over a long time it can effect your talent, health and even relationships if not treated carefully thus it is significant to pay attention towards it's symptoms and take the remedial steps.

SYMPTOMS

Performance anxiety can be diagnosed by several symptoms which appear all together or one by one in the person during doing the specific task, some of the common symptoms include the following:-

1- Increased heart beat

2- Increased blood pressure

3- Dizziness

4- Headache

5- Dry mouth

6- Cold hands or feet

7- Pale or flushed skin

8- Sweating

9- Thoughts of failure

10- Changes in the behavior

HOW TO DEAL WITH PERFORMANCE ANXIETY?

Performance anxiety can be a quite frightening and challenging experience for anyone facing it but it is important to remember that regardless of the type of performance anxiety, the severity, and the frequency, there are things you can do to improve and possibly even eliminate the symptoms. Here are 7 ways which may help you to cope up with Performance anxiety in your daily life:-

1- Preparing well before the event.

Success and hard work go together if you want your task to be accomplished well then there is no way you escape the training and preparation, whether you are a student, athlete, job seeker, public speaker, dancer or employee, you must be well prepared for the event so that the chances of your performing well gets improved and you will feel less tensed regarding the result.

2- Visualizing the completion of task.

Visualizing is an effective technique to pacify the mind and bring mental peace and confidence in one's mind. Once you are preparing well for your task the other thing you must do is to practice visualization of your task getting successfully completed. This technique will help you to eliminate fear and negative thoughts regarding the results and will help you to stay confident while performing the task.

3- Seeking emotional support from others.

Discussing your mental state with your dear and loved ones can benefit you greatly, people's positive advices and support can help you to reduce your anxiety and forgetting about the past bad experiences. Hence, it is generally advised to discuss your anxiety issues with people who are close to you and can help you to stay positive, focused and motivated all along.

4- Getting enough sleep.

Taking proper sleep is very essential for physical and mental health both, it is during the sleep time when the body and mind gets recovered to continue for the next day. Getting enough sleep and maintaining proper sleep timings can help you to perform much better at the task, thus in place of just waking up at late night and overthinking over the issue, try to go to the bed at early hours and you will see its tremendous benefits at the work.

5- Meditation

Meditation is an excellent mental exercise in which person stays focused on a particular thing, also meditation helps in living in the present moment. Meditation helps in almost every type of mental health disorder, say Depression, Anxiety, Stress, Bipolar disorder, etc. Practicing daily meditation in the morning for at least 15 - 20 minutes can help in decreasing anxiety disorders at a large scale.

6- Maintaining a Healthy diet.

Mind gets greatly affected by the food one eat, in order to get a good mental health maintaining proper diet is quite necessary. Eat vegetables and protein rich food as much as possible, include fresh fruits and juices in your diet and avoid junk food. Try to stay away from alcohol, drugs and smoking, at initial stage these things may seem as comforting you from anxiety but instead they work just opposite, smoking and alcohol actually worsens the symptoms of anxiety disorders.

7- Practice Yoga and Exercise.

Body and mind are connected to each other, when you stay lazy or choose to sit idle then not only your physical body but your mind also gets dull and ineffective. On the other hand if you stay active and get involve in physical exercise and yoga then it will bring on a positive effect on your mind as well. Therefore, it is advisable to get early each morning and practice exercise or yoga, which will not only relax your body but mind also.