Four Helpful Tips on Dealing with Anxiety
You know the feeling. If you’re anything like me, you often wake up with a pit in your stomach, heart racing and a million thoughts spinning around in your mind. You look at the clock and it’s only 7am and you think, “how am I going to get through this day if I’m already strung out?!” I understand, I’m right there with you and I struggle with this too, especially this year when everything seems like it’s hit the fan. Some days I feel really hopeless and it causes me to lose any motivation I may have had leading up to that day. Thankfully, if we can understand anxiety at its core and we are aware of things to help keep it manageable, we can be at peace instead of living in panic mode all the time.
Anxiety comes from thinking and living too much in the future, or as therapists call it, future tripping. I am the QUEEN of future tripping. Raise your hand if you’re the same way. Mmm hmm, good times. You stare off into space, you think about where you want to be in a year, five years, ten years! You worry about what you’re not doing, what you need to do, what you’re doing wrong, etc. All of a sudden the world and life feel so incredibly overwhelming and you’re paralyzed with anxiety and depressed. It’s a vicious cycle and I know it all too well. There is of course a healthy dose of looking into the future, but this is not it my friends. A healthy look into the future should leave you feeling excited, optimistic and motivated to reach your goals. What I have learned is that when I look too far into the future it triggers anxiety in my body and so I have been relying on some things that have truly helped me reel myself back in. You’ve probably heard them all before, but I want to share them with you anyway and hopefully inspire some change in your tactics or perhaps give you some new insight on what can potentially help.
1 // LIMITING CAFFEINE
I know. Caffeine is life and trust me when I say, I simply cannot live without it. I am not going to sit here and tell you I cut it out of my life completely, but I have made modifications. I still drink it every morning, but ever since COVID hit our world, I have reduced my 3 cups in the morning ritual to 1 cup. On days I feel like I’m on fire (in a good way), I allow myself to have two max and it’s ok. However, most days I’m sticking to my one/one and half cups and then spending the rest of the day drinking 60 ounces of water. It helps flush the caffeine out of my system by 6pm so I can still have a good night’s sleep without the jitters and racing heart that caffeine often gives me. If you are ultra caffeine sensitive I would personally cut it out altogether or maybe just have it every other day. Play around with what works for you and find a good balance.
2 // WALKS (HOME)
If you’ve been following me for even a little while, you know that I’m a huge advocate for walking. It’s my happy place, it’s my mediation, it’s my savior when it comes to anxiety. My hometown is Los Angeles, which is infamous for having a zero walking culture so as you can imagine I used to get strange looks on the streets as I often walked home in my old Hollywood neighborhood. Haha I used to walk a mile to the movie theater on a regular basis and it posed so many questions to my friends, but hopefully by this point, they get it. When I moved to Seattle and saw how much walking is just part of life here, I was ELATED. I want to pass on this free, amazing tool to you because while it may seem so obvious, so many people don’t bother to even consider it. If I’m spinning out, if I’m questioning everything, if my stomach is in knots, I put on my shoes and walk outside. There is something about the fresh air hitting my face, the sound of nature, the wind, the people watching. I often feel inspired by the elements I see outside. For example street fashion, cute boutiques I walk by or the beautiful Puget Sound. I feel instantly calmer and by the time I get home my mind is clear and more focused. I listen to my favorite podcast or playlist and just get in my zone for 20 minutes. I I am usually taking 2-3 walks on a daily basis. Some days are busier than other obviously, but that’s what I aim for each day and it has truly changed my life. I even started a series on Instagram from all the photos I was taking on my walks and it is now a print shop!
3 // JOURNALING / MANIFESTING / GET THOSE FEELINGS OUT
Ok, so before I sound all woo woo, just know, I’m pretty woo woo. My socal bohemian hippie heart is woo woo af and I make no apology for it, haha. My stance on this is that if it works, who cares and I’m telling you this works. For years I have been manifesting peace in my life along with anything I want to bring into my world and this is how I successfully do it. I have a pretty journal I write in every day (I like to do it in the morning when I’m sipping my coffee) and in this journal I write positive mantras for the day. For example, today I wrote, “My creativity will soar, I am worthy of abundance, I will come out of this pandemic better than ever.” Is this cheezy? Maybe. Do I care? No. This is our life and we are in control no matter how hard that may be to believe. We can’t predict the future, we can’t control things like a global pandemic, but we can control our levels of positivity and we can take actionable steps to manifest good in our life. This is one of those steps. When I’m spinning out and worried about the future and things I can’t control I dump my brain and get it all out on paper. Somehow seeing it in front of me in a tangible way makes things less terrifying and suddenly, I am calmer, more at peace. This helps me articulate my thoughts and feelings rather than allowing them to swirl around in my mind and stomach disguised as confusion and fear. Trust me and try this and then shoot me a message to let me know how it went :)
4 // EXERCISING CREATIVITY
I know everyone isn’t an “artist” per se and that being creative might not be your strong suit, but that perspective is probably coming from two places. One, you haven’t talked to me (haha) and two, not understanding that creativity comes in all forms, not just paint to canvas or eye to camera. We all have creativity in us and it’s important to figure out what that means in each of us. For me, it’s photography, but it’s also manifested in the last few months as mixed media journaling, decorating my home, learning how to play guitar (I’m still terrible btw) and learning how to line draw. Maybe for you it’s learning how to cook, taking up creative writing or perhaps Marie Kondo-ing your home (yes, that takes creativity!). When we are so hyper focused on the anxiety in our bodies, it’s so helpful to redirect that energy. The second I start focusing on a new page in my journal or paint something new or try to learn a new chord on the guitar my blood pressure drops, I relax and change the trajectory of my day.
I hope that if you’ve been having a hard time, this was helpful and inspires you to make some changes. Please let me know if it did in the comments! I would love to hear from you. Sending you my love.
Liz
