Living with Stress and Anxiety
What to do when life feels too overwhelming and it’s hard to cope
Stress and anxiety are common and many of us experience them from time to time. Sometimes, though, life situations can send our thoughts spinning out of control, creating feelings that seem overwhelming.
Years ago, I was diagnosed with an anxiety and panic disorder that I’ve learned strategies to manage and, most of the time, I’m able to manage them quite well. Recently, however, I’ve had some personal experiences that have been very challenging, and these experiences have created a good testing ground for all the mindful practices and self-care strategies that I’ve learned over the years.
I want to share the strategies that have been helping me the past few weeks through this very challenging time as they may be helpful for you too. These practices have provided immediate relief to me.
For these practices to be even more effective, I recommend developing a regular, daily self-care routine that includes mindful practices. My daily routine includes regular journaling along with a gratitude practice and intention setting, mindful yoga and other exercise (pilates, weights, walking, etc.), and meditation. I have a regular bedtime routine that includes a warm bath, stretching and a good book. My day also includes spending time with people who are important to me, time with my dog, and a desire to learn new things.
But even with an effective daily self-care routine, life throws us challenges from time to time where we sometimes need to dig even deeper into our inner resilience resources. That’s when the following practices are particularly helpful.
5 mindful practices for acute anxiety (that really work!)
Often, just connecting with your breath and lengthening your inhales and exhales will help. But for those times when you feel like you can’t cope a moment longer, like you want to run away or climb out of your skin, and a simple breath practice just won’t work, try one (or all!) of these five practices:
Shake it off: Movement is key during an acute anxiety attack. You can go for a brisk walk or run, dance, lift some weights, or set up a punching bag! Or, you can simply shake it off. Shake your hands and arms as you move them all around. Shake one leg and foot at a time, shake your head from side to side. I promise, it helps!
Lion’s Breath: Open your mouth, stick out your tongue and make the sound “HA!”. For extra effect, actually pretend to become a lion. Lift your hands in the air and pretend they are paws. Look as menacing as you can. (You may want to make sure you’re alone for this one!!) This works really well after doing the shake it off practice.
5-4-3-2-1 Practice: When we’re anxious we often feel ungrounded and it’s important to ground ourselves again. This practice is really helpful in bringing yourself back to the present moment as well as helping you distract your mind from the thoughts that caused the anxious feelings. Look around the room and name 5 things you can see, 4 things you can touch, 3 things you can hear, 2 things you can smell and 1 thing you can taste. I did this practice one day when I felt myself getting lightheaded and fearful and it was really helpful in calming me down.
The tapping hug: Firm hugs always help calm the nervous system, and even when you’re all alone, it’s possible to feel the benefits. All you need to do is wrap your arms around yourself. For extra benefit, tap your fingers on your upper arms as you’re hugging yourself. You can count as you tap and combine the tapping hug with a lion’s breath or the 5-4-3-2-1 practice.
Infinity breath practice: This is my absolute favourite practice for when I wake up in the middle of the night feeling anxious, and it works every time. With your eyes closed, imagine the infinity symbol (a sideways number 8) and draw a line around it as you breathe. While you breathe in, choose a word to repeat (I like “peace”) and as you breathe out say another word to yourself (I like to use “calm”). Keep imagining taking your breath around the infinity symbol until your breathing slows and calms down (and sometimes you’ll fall asleep during the practice). Your thoughts will try to distract you from focusing on the visualization, which is normal. Just keep bringing yourself back.
None of us want to feel anxious and stressed, but when it happens, I hope you find these practices as helpful as I do.
And always remember to breathe……..
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I’d love to hear from you so please send any comments or questions to me at sharon@sharonashtonmindfulyoga.com. Feel free to share this email with anyone else who may be interested.
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