'You are more than your anxiety. Here are 10 things you can do about it right now.'

The following is an extract from Your Name is Not Anxious by Stephanie Dorwick, a very personal guide to putting anxiety in its place.

Anxiety is not 'all in the mind'. It affects your whole body, and certainly your emotions. Those big responses you are feeling to immediate or potential unsettling or frightening situations happen within your body. They are driven by complex systems outside your immediate control that are doing exactly what they should: alerting you to danger so you can protect yourself. However, when 'alerting' becomes too frequent, or semi- permanent, this is exhausting as well as destabilising.

Something needs to be done. Something can be done.

1. Anxiety is treatable. It is the most treatable of all 'mood disorders'. This puts power back where it belongs—with you. However good your support, you are the most vital member of your 'treating team'.

2. Managing stress and reducing it wherever possible is your first major step in taking back power—and putting yourself in charge of your moods and emotions. This is not optional. Stress and anxiety are inextricably linked. No one but you can sort your priorities and put your wellbeing first.

3. Anxiety expresses instincts, feelings, reactions that have a vital place in a healthy psyche. But anxiety should never dominate. Nor should it dominate the way you think about yourself.

4. You live in a wondrous physical world, and an often insanely stressful, hectic and competitive one. Anxiety is a rational response to a world like ours. But you can reduce its sting.

5. A whole-self perspective embraces all that you are. Habits of thinking and feeling are only that—habits. Some are supporting you. Some are not. You are always more than your thoughts and feelings, however persuasive they may be.

Watch: 5 lifestyle hacks you may want to try to help ease your anxiety. Post continues after video.

6. When you are acutely anxious, calm your body first. When you are less anxious, you can use strategies and insights that radically broaden your choices.

7. Self therapy brings invaluable insights from all your experiences. It gives back the power and choices that anxiety has taken away. If you have professional help, self-therapy can augment it, supporting you 24/7.

8. Insight and action are self-therapy essentials. Without action, insight fizzles into nothing (no change). Without insight, you will lack the motivation to create meaningful change—and benefit from it.

9. Pay close attention to where you give your time and attention. Reduce what lowers your spirits and elevates your stress levels. Living with Zen equanimity is not the goal. Feeling fully alive is.

10. Befriend your mind — especially if you feel that your mind (along with your brain) has been causing you suffering. You are more than your mind (and thoughts), and taking steps to reduce stress and radically reduce mental and emotional overload is essential for your wellbeing. Speak and think about your mind positively: 'feed it' richly through what you reflect on, 'take in', and make your own. Use your creativity to enlist freshness. ("Could I look at this—or myself—somehow differently?") Creativity is a precious gift of human existence, as your whole mind is.

Jon's story of using his creativity—or discovering it—is one that moves me and may inspire you. In his words:

"I'm a mid-30s architect who thought his 'creativity' was strictly three-dimensional. At Uni I had panic attacks that made exams a kind of torment. In my final year, I tentatively discovered positive visualisations. At first, they weren't much more than seeing myself somewhere relaxing. Later, I could envisage myself in any tough situations in considerable detail ahead of time, kind of deciding as I go what direction I want to take and, really, what outcome I’m aiming for."

"There are several benefits. 1) I can now 're-direct' scenarios that ignite old fears, mainly of 'not making it' competitively. 2) I'm aware now of where fear takes me. 3) When I'm not calm enough to shift perspective internally, I go walking. Not sitting, not brooding, may be the last thing I want to do yet having pushed myself out the door I can guarantee breaking the circuit at least somewhat. Funnily enough, it's my feet pounding the ground that helps most, my feet moving, getting me somewhere."

Image: Supplied.

Your Name is Not Anxious by Stephanie Dowrick, RRP $29.99, published by Allen & Unwin, out now.

If you think you may be experiencing depression or another mental health problem, please contact your general practitioner. If you're based in Australia, 24-hour support is available through Lifeline on 13 11 14 or beyondblue on 1300 22 4636.

Feature Image: Supplied.