Types of Anxiety
There’s a fair chance that the majoirty of us have faced some form of anxiety at some stage. Whether it’s nerves, pressure or worries, this article is going to help you understand the types of anxiety that you might feel.
Trait vs State Anxiety
Anxiety tends to be put into to ‘buckets’, trait anxiety and state anxiety.
Trait Anxiety
The best way to think about this type of anxiety is as your general baseline of anxiety as a personality. It is also referred to as stable and persistent by psychologists.
Trait anxiety is the tendency to feel worried in many different situations. It is part of a person’s personality, which is how they think, feel, and act in their own unique way.
People who have a lot of trait anxiety tend to see danger in things that others might not. They may often feel anxious about things that don’t make other people feel anxious.
Different schools of thought have different ideas about personality and how anxiety affects it. But trait anxiety, also called neuroticism, is a part of many personality models.
State Anxiety
State anxiety is a much persistent expereicne but is the anxiety that we feel in specific moments
State anxiety is a temporary emotional state that includes feelings of fear and nervousness, as well as changes in the body like a faster heart rate, sweaty palms or deeper breathing.
Example of both in Sport
Trait Anxiety
Often worry about performance or losing a game, even if there are no signs that this will happen or the stakes of losing are low.
State Anxiety
Only getting worried when it looks like you might lose.
Try a Meditation for Anxiety
Meditation is known to improve our relationship with anxiety and reduce the feelings of it.
Try our Anxiety meditation on the Sport Yogi App.
If it scares you. It means something.
Other ways to manage Anxiety
Yoga
Managing the physical responses to anxiety and releasing tension can help with learning and understanding where you feel the physical experiences of anxiety.
Breathing Exercises
Breathing is a gateway to our nervous system. Whether it’s in the moment or the night before. Using your breathing to allow your nervous system to calm down.
Try this really quickly:
Inhale – 4 seconds
Exhales – 8 seconds
Journaling
Getting your thoughts out of your head and onto paper can make you recognise how potentially harmful they are and whether they are even true.
Try Sport Yogi
