Learning to manage stress and anxiety
I had started this flowery opening and I was like screw that! If you are stressed, you need help now. So here are some steps to manage stress and anxiety.
If you are working at your desk, stand up, walk away, and stretch. Go on. Do it. Sitting at your desk for three hours straight is not good for you. You are holding stress in your body. You may even be holding your breath as you work and tightening your jaw. Get up and walk. You need to take breaks.
Inhale deeply for a count of four, hold it for two, then exhale for four. Do it a few times. That air will help get more oxygen flowing and you will feel better.
Hydrate for crying out loud! Many of us drink caffiene or alcohol when we are stressed and both of those dehydrate us. Drink water. Water can be still, spring, purified, filtered, fizzy, or have a wedge of fruit in it. Your body needs water and so does your brain. You know you are dehydrated if your skin is dry. You can put moisturizer on it for a temporary fix but you need water. Your joints also need water too. Please drink water.
If you are about to go into panic mode because your anxiety is on high alert, take ice and hold it in your hand and count to ten. The ice should interrupt the part of your brain going into panic. Once that panic is gone, examine your feelings. What were you thinking and feeling prior to the panic?
Talk to a friend about your stress. If you have a support group, you can verbalize what is bothering you and brainstorm how to work things out. If you feel that this is something you cannot talk to family or friends about, considering hiring a life coach. I have worked with people who are scared because of changes happening with their jobs or elderly parents who need specialized care. We all need to talk to someone at some point. Everyone needs help. You can’t do everything perfect on your own 100% of the time. You are not a robot.
Start a gratitude journal and focus on the good things in your life. In a previous blog I wrote about what made me smile. You can appreciate the small things in life. Maybe you feel grateful for the wonderful blue ski or that your car is running or you saw an amazing sunset. Try to find something to be grateful for during your day and see if you can create a list of moments.
Put both hands over your heart and tell yourself you are safe and you are loved. You can love yourself. You accept who you are right here and now with all your faults as a beautiful human being. Humans make mistakes. Anyone who tells you different is an idiot. Now if you have a high pressure job and you made 10 mistakes today, maybe you need to find a new career path, but a mistake here or there is fine. If you are not making mistakes at all, you may be living too small and that’s no fun. If you made a mistake, own it. Learn from the mistake and move on.
Know that it will pass. Realize that everything in this world is temporary including our stress, discomfort, and anxiety. The average panic attack only lasts 10 minutes but in those 10 minutes it feels like hell. Then once you have one panic attack you may start fearing more panic attacks and trigger yourself. Get out of your own head. Put a comedian on from YouTube or anything that has people laughing. Journal what you are thinking and feeling. Are you worrying about things that may never happen? Or is there a legitimate reason to be in flight or fight mode right now? Where is the lion or tiger? If there is not a real fear, in other words, something to physically run from or fight? What did your brain latch onto that set you off in that moment? If you can detach and observe the feelings and thoughts instead of reacting, you could actually uncover your emotional boogeyman. When you know what the fear is and can name it, that fear loses some of its power over you.
