Dealing with Anxiety
Anxiety is seriously the worst, and I feel like it happens to everyone….. and well if it doesn’t- good for you.
I describe anxiety as these little gremlins that just sneak up on you in the middle of whenever they want, get on a treadmill in your mind, start running, while playing the world’s loudest, most obnoxious music ever. It can be almost crippling, to where all I want to do is sleep, but I absolutely refuse to let anxiety rule my life.
Here is what I do to cope with my anxiety, hopefully some of this helps you with your anxiety.
Right when I feel anxiety sneaking up, I first ask myself what is causing the anxiety, and how I am going to handle it.
Usually anxiety sneaks up on me, when I have a lot to do or not enough to do. Sometimes this plus the combination of lack of sleep or eating like shit makes these gremlins appear in my mind. I have noticed that eating poorly really affects my anxiety.
One of the most important things I do to manage anxiety, is just take a minute to calm my mind, or maybe a couple minutes of deep breathing. I start with what I can control.
Next, I get off of my phone and social media. I have noticed I feel much more anxious and discomfort with myself when I am constantly on my phone. I even have time limits set on all of my social media platforms on my phone. I love social media, but I don’t believe it is very good for mental health or staying in your own lane.
My next hot tip for managing anxiety is that I write down positive affirmations. Positive affirmations are my second love language. I know how important it is that I tell myself nice things. That is really just a life hot tip, you have to tell yourself nice things….. read that again, you have to tell yourself nice things. A few examples of my positive affirmation that I write in my journal are similar to what follows, “ I am strong. I am fit. I am confident. I am intelligent. I am a hustler. I am determined. I am unique. I am beautiful…" I have many, many more, but those are just a few. (If you’re interested in a deeper dive into exactly what I write in my journal, I will do a blog post on that, just let me know.) I write my affirmations even if I don’t whole heartedly believe them because I have noticed in the years I’ve been writing my affirmations; I have became so many of the things I told myself I was.
Usually by this point, it’s time to get busy. I like to get busy doing something, working, working out, getting ready, cleaning…. something that takes my focus away from my own mind and towards a project. When I accomplish something, even if that something is the laundry, (for me that’s a huge accomplishment because I am the absolute worst at putting clean clothes away) I immediately feel relief from the anxiety that I was facing.
I hope these hot tips that help me with anxiety help you.
As always I want to hear from you.
XO,
Madison
