If you suffer with anxiety like I have over the years, you’ll know it can be debilitating.
Earlier this month I shared my video series, Self Love Week – which I created to share with you some of my best tips on areas that my clients struggle with.
The most requested topic, and the most watched, was dealing with anxiety.
So for anyone who didn’t have the chance to watch it, today I’m sharing some of the highlights.
And first off, a disclaimer – I’m not a medical practitioner, and I speak from a self-development and personal perspective.
I share what’s worked for me, and what has worked for people I know.
So if you suffer with severe anxiety, if it’s debilitating for you, and if it’s something you’ve suffered with on a long term basis, I’d encourage you to take medical advice.
It can be easy to forget that anxiety is a natural, human emotion. So I encourage you to remember that, and not be too hard on yourself
Anxiety is there to tell us something – it’s coming from a primal part of the brain which is responsible for sensing danger.
This primal part of the brain was originally used to protect us and sense dangers like tigers coming to eat us.
Now, the world has evolved but we haven’t – and the 24/7 requirement to be on and constantly being flooded with information is going to have us constantly scanning for danger.
I try to deal with anxiety by calming my nervous system, which has two sides – sympathetic (fight, flight, or freeze), and parasympathetic (rest and digest). If we’re constantly stuck in fight, flight or freeze – guess what, we struggle to rest or digest…
Find activities that calm and ground you.
Connect with others and have a supportive group of people around you
Journaling – either free journaling or using prompts as we do on retreats
The boring stuff like sleep, food and exercise!
If you want to watch the whole video with all my tips, it’s available here.
On my winter retreat we are going to be working on helping you find those activities that calm and ground you, as well as techniques and workshops for more of that peaceful, blissful feeling we all need. You can find out more about my retreats here.