"If you want to conquer the anxiety of life, live in the moment, live in the breath.” ― Amit Ray, Om Chanting and Meditation

The word anxiety has become far too commonplace in our society. Throughout history people always had to deal with a natural level of anxiety. These anxieties come from work, family, friends, and society as a whole.  Even advances in technology and the birth of social media have skyrocketed the anxiety levels in people's lives which now are reaching a boiling point. As a person who is old enough to remember time before the internet, I have first hand experience to this fact. I remember the anxiety I would feel when trying to fit in with my circle of friends (consisting of 5 people) as a kid. I also remember the time when work was 9 to 5. At the end of the day your time belonged to you. Those days are over, as kids these days are now feeling the anxiety of trying to fit in with their 3000 Facebook and Instagram "friends," and with text messaging and email, your work hours never really end. As bleak as this sounds, combating the anxiety caused by technology can be simple. Here are some easy ways to help alleviate anxiety caused by technology.

"DISCONNECT"

One of the biggest causes of anxiety comes from our constant need for "connection". When I say "connection" I mean our constant need to be connected though our devices. I have had friends whom I haven't seen in years come over to my house and ask for the WIFI password within the first 10 minutes. In order to combat this problem we have to first admit there is one. We must look into the mirror and say, "Hi, my name is Alex and I am a connection junkie." After this step I suggest setting up a tech free weekend. Take all your phones, laptops, and iPads, put them in a closet, and breakout a ton of books. Trust me the first day will be horrible. The anxiety from being away from your tech will grow to a point where you may break, but fight that feeling and you will be happy you did. Once the anxiety lessens, you will have gained a sense of ease and will fall into a "tech free calm". For those who need a little help in this I suggest putting some distance between you and your hometown. In my research for a "disconnect vacation" I stumbled on Getaway House . Getaway House is series of mini houses tucked away in the woods. They have locations, around two hours of drive time, from most major cities. The mini houses come fully equipped with a bathroom, kitchen, fire pit area, and an oversized bed. Most importantly, there is no WIFI and with little cell service it makes this a perfect rehab for us "Connection Junkies."

"IT CAN WAIT / ANSWER WITH ONE MESSAGE"

One thing that we as a society have to realize is not every email or text message we receive requires our instant attention. We have to stop this habit of running to our phones every time we get a notification no matter how unimportant it is. I love my mother with all my heart, but I have to realize that when she texts me to ask if my daughter is wearing her cute light up shoes, it's not an emergency that I need to drop all I am doing to respond to. She can wait! This goes for work emails too. Here is a tip on how to deal with work emails I read in the book, The Four Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss. When dealing with emails, dedicate an hour everyday to answering emails and add an auto response to your emails explaining that people who email you should expect and answer at a certain time, and that if they have an emergency they should call you. This technique not only keeps you from answering emails all day, but it takes away the "what if there is an emergency" anxiety. 

An other thing we have to realize is that not every text or email encounter needs to span multiple messages. We are all guilty of this.  We text our mother to ask if she can babysit just to get 100 messages before we even ask her. I suggest we save ourselves the time and anxiety of multiple messages by just getting to the point in message one.

Instead of:

"Text 1:  Hey.

 Text 2:  How are you?

 Text 3:  Are you busy tomorrow?

 Text 4:  Can you watch the kids?"

Do this:

"Text 1:  Hey How are you? I hope you are well! Listen, I have to work   late tomorrow and was wondering if you can watch the kids for me?   It'll be like two hours and I'll order pizza!"

 Looks a lot better!

"WATCH AN 80'S SITCOM"

How we spend our free time is a great way to get away from things that cause us anxiety. Binge watching a series on Netflix has become one of the most popular ways to unwind today. Unfortunately, the shows most of us choose actually increase our anxiety. Most people choose to watch deep dark dramas, or shows with deep plots full of twists.  According to the article Anxiety and Television, located on the website Calm Clinic, these shows are stressful and can cause an increase in anxiety. They suggest watching something light-hearted with a stress-free story line, something like Friends.

"KILL TIME IN YOUR FREE TIME"

Another huge cause of anxiety is the need to be productive every single moment we are awake. We have to realize that there is a time to be productive, a time to relax, and a time to do things that make you happy. It's ok to play PlayStation for 4 hours and not feel guilty about it. It's ok to read comic books all day on a Saturday, and feel great about it. 

"AND FINALLY INNER PEACE"

Even though anxiety has become commonplace in our society, it does not have to remain this way. We all have the power to combat anxiety. The best weapon against anxiety is inner peace. Inner peace means something different for everyone, but in my opinion, inner peace is the knowledge that you have done your best at work, in your family, for your friends, and for yourself. Inner peace is realizing that we are finite beings that can only do so much, and as long as we do our best in our allotted time we can rest easy at night. If we do our best at work when at work then we won't feel the stress and pressure to answer emails after hours. If we put away our phones and are attentive to our family when we are with them we won't be all stressed out worrying about them when we are away from them. If we are a good friend, and listen to our friends when we are with them we won't feel the need to text message them every three seconds asking how they are because we would already know. Finally, if we do ourselves a favor, and put down our cellphones to live in the moment, we wont have to spend our time glued to our phones chasing the moments we missed.