Ways to Reduce Anxiety
Honestly, with this pandemic, my already heightened anxiety levels seem to be (and feel like) they’re heightened three times as much. I’m having difficulties falling asleep at night, staying asleep the entire night once I’m finally able to fall asleep, and then waking up at 8:30 – which is already over an hour later than I usually would have woken up.
I am very good at, once I’m awake, getting up, walking over to the other side of the bed where I have my work stuff setup, logging in, getting dressed (in anything but my pajamas), and then proceeding to work. However, and I say that as if I was saying a big fat “BUT”, it still doesn’t reduce my anxiety. At first, working from home was hard because we were in a state of constant “fire drills”, but that would have remained the same had we been in the office with the circumstances we were in. But then, it got hard to focus…after that, I became agitated with everything and anything. People, situations, things I was working on all agitated me. I took two days off last week, so I wouldn’t lose the benefit time, and to disconnect as much as possible and it didn’t help as much as I hoped.
While I was thinking about what I was going to write in this post, I listed things that help me reduce my anxiety. Here’s what I like to do:
- Take a hot shower/bath
- Self-care! Put on a face and hair mask
- Eat my favorite guilty pleasure (lately it’s been the Trolls Oreos)
- Create and listen to a fun playlist
- Watch Tik Tok videos (this has become a favorite de-stressor of mine)
- Read a book or magazine
- Watch feel good movies or your favorite show
- Put clean sheets on your bed
- Go for a walk (or exercise if that’s your cup of tea)
- Write it out! (Blog, Journal, Tweet, Facebook post it)
- Go for a drive
- Pin search on Pinterest (I recently started a “Mental Health” board on my Pinterest – it’s a great resource and it makes me smile to find/read some of the pins I do)
These may sound silly to you, but they’re what works for me. Especially writing it out, I have a Mean Girls notebook from the musical that I have with me at all times to literally write gibberish. It doesn’t need to be a blog post, or a journal/diary entry, it can be words or circles, hearts are a favorite of mine…you name it, it’s in there. It helps to just get it out sometimes. I also love watching movies when I have anxiety or am in a funk. I have a select few that are the go-to’s for me when I experience this (Sex and the City Movie 1 & 2, Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy, Fast & Furious saga, and a few others). I have them on my iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV for instant access when I need a distraction or pick me up.
I also really love to take a hot shower when I have anxiety. A few weeks ago, when this first started I couldn’t go to sleep at all. It was a real problem. it would be 3 in the morning and I could run a half marathon. I got in the shower and took a long hot shower and it made me feel better. Didn’t necessarily help the sleeping situation, but it did help reduce my anxiety.
Of course music is also an instant mood lift. Depending on the type of anxiety or feelings I’m having determines the playlist I play. If I need a distraction and I’m just in a random mood, I’ll shuffle my current favorites. If I am in a crying mood, I’ll play the playlist I have that reminds me of Enzo. If I’m in a flat out funk and neither of these two playlists work I have a throwback playlist with like 15 hours worth of music. I would listen to it on my drives to and from Orlando when I lived there. Driving and that specific playlist almost always go hand in hand.
I also find it hard sometimes to differentiate my feelings – whether they are anxiety, depression, frustration, sadness so I found the above picture really helpful when I found it. I actually saved it to my camera roll, to my laptop, I added it in my Pinterest board. I even sent it to my best friend! This is just an example of how much I love to go on Pinterest when I need a distraction or pick me up. There are times when at my office I’ll do a Pinterest binge for a few minutes to help me regroup myself. There’s something satisfying about creating a visual “vision board” when I’m stumped.
Is there anything specific you do to reduce your anxiety?
