“If you are depressed, you are living in the past. If you are anxious, you are living in the future. If you are at peace, you are living in the present.
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Anxiety is a dreadful feeling that can cause physical and mental stress, leading to disconnection from intuition. In fact, most of us suffer from it at one point or another, often without even realizing it. The GOOD news is that it’s very treatable when you have the right tools and resources. To alleviate anxiety and stress, I would like to share my top self-care tips with you:
Choose Yourself
Get in tune with what your body and emotions are telling you. Express your thoughts and feelings, and don’t feel guilty about taking time for yourself, saying no, and addressing your needs. Ask yourself, are you getting enough sleep? Spending time with friends and family? Eating satisfying and fueling meals? Drinking enough water? Getting enough movement? Remember, you deserve to give yourself what you need.
Schedule Worry Time
Take 15 minutes out of your day to focus on your worries and let the rest of your day feel more relaxed. Have more concerns when your 15 minutes are up? Write them down and move forward. You’ll get to them next day!
Challenge Unhelpful Thoughts
Write down the thought you want to question and ask yourself the following:
- What is the evidence for this thought?
- Am I basing this thought on facts or feelings?
- Is this thought black and white when reality is more complicated?
- Am I making any assumptions?
- Might other people have different interpretations of this same situation?
- Am I looking at all the evidence, or just what supports my thought?
- Is my thought a likely scenario, or is it the worst-case scenario?
Self-soothe with Touch
When feeling anxious, try self-soothing by crossing your arms and using your hands to rub your arms up and down from your shoulders to your elbows.
Stay in the Present Moment
When your thoughts are in the future, anxiety arises. The best way to reduce stress is to keep yourself in the present moment as much as possible. Use this mindfulness technique to bring yourself to the present moment when feeling overwhelmed or distracted by thoughts of the future. To begin with, you can try a straightforward deep breathing technique known as Box Breathing. To do this, you breathe in for 5 seconds, hold your breath for 5 seconds, breathe out for 5 seconds, and then hold your breath for 5 seconds. Repeat this process until you feel your thoughts slowing down or experience some relief.
When you can find your breath, try practicing the 5-4-3-2-1 technique. For that, you want to look around and focus on:
Five things you see
Four things you feel
Three things you hear
Two things you smell
One thing you taste
Be Proud of Your Progress
Baby steps! Reward yourself for facing uncomfortable emotions and situations. Progress doesn’t have time constraints.
It's important to take the time to practice strategies for managing and relieving anxiety. Though some methods may be difficult to adjust to, committing to improving your mental health and well-being with these self-guided strategies is commendable.
All right, my readers, take good care.
With love,
Iza
Your Coaching Psychologist (GMBPsS & Msc)