Dealing with anxiety in anxious times
Are you having trouble with anxiety at the moment?
COVID
Politics
Wildfires
Global Warming
Has life in general got you anxious?
Here is what you can do:
· Breathe
· Distract yourself
· Talk about it with a friend
· Look at the past, present and future for the positives in your life
Breathing is a great way to calm down. One of my favorites is the four-square breathing exercise. This is where you breathe in for four seconds and hold it for four seconds. Then you breathe out for four seconds and hold for four seconds. You have to count and focus on your breathing. Do this for a few minutes and see what happens.
Another technique to deal with anxiety is to distract yourself with good things to forget your anxiety and change your focus. Make some bread. Go into your garden and look for weeds or pick flowers (or in my case, zucchini and tomatoes).
Have a friend over for a walk and a coffee or tea- either for distraction, or to talk over your anxiety. Then you can check to see what can be done (if you can control the situation, or not, for example). Some good cognitive bias exercises can help here. Talking about it with a friend is often very helpful, if the friend is compassionate and yet challenging you on false beliefs.
One of my favorites is a focus on the positives: past positives (thankfulness), savor present positives (and be grateful, too), and look forward to future positives- focus on the positives in your life. What are you thankful for that has happened (for me, I am thankful I have my supervision certification)? What are you savoring in the present (I am savoring the awesome weather right now)? And what are you looking forward to (I am looking forward to speaking next week in Zug and to a couple weeks of down time before the semester starts after that)?
So, I hope this list of ideas helps you to avoid getting too anxious in the next few weeks.
Have a successful and positive week!
Patricia Jehle patricia@jehle-coaching.com
