Apply some logic If you are a very anxious person it’s easy to take a single fact and build into a whole frightening scenario. As soon as you start feeling anxious about something, remember what the facts are and that you’ve probably worried about it a lot before, unnecessarily. If you’ve got a worried circuit set up in your brain, what you need to do is to try to set up another system, which is more rational. Eventually this does work because your brain is very clever and 'rewires’ itself every night

Is your diet making you anxious? When stress hormones build up they turn on the worry centres in the brain. Sometimes simple things can contribute, such as hunger or a particular diet. It’s very important for the human brain to have proper nutrients. Many people who suffer from anxiety are deficient in magnesium (a trace element found in green leafy plants). A daily supplement of magnesium citrate, which you can buy in health-food shops, can help enormously. Cutting out alcohol and caffeine from your diet will reduce anxiety, too

Remember to breathe! Exercise is very important. Try to sign up for yoga or t’ai chi classes, which are both very calming for the mind and will teach you proper breathing. Even if you don’t want to do yoga, do try diaphragm breathing – put one hand over the other just below the belly-button and breathe so that your hands go up and down; repeat 10 times. Also try systematically to relax, because your muscles will be tense if you’re anxious. Starting with your feet and gradually working your way up your body, think about each muscle, imagining all the stress going out of the top of your head

Live in the moment Mindfulness is a technique that helps you to live in the now, rather than keep worrying about the past and the future. For example, you might concentrate on your 'in’ and 'out’ breaths, or try a walking meditation, whereby you concentrate simply on putting your feet down and lifting them up and their contact with the floor