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Little changes to simplify life and dampen down anxiety.




Little changes to simplify life and dampen down anxiety

We aren’t talking about anxiety totally going away, this little list will help to stave off overwhelm and help you manage more throughout the day.

·       Leave your home space in a nice way, even if its just make your bed, or stack the dishwasher with last night’s pots. When its been a hard day you then have a nice space to come back to.

·       Tell a couple of people abut your anxiety…not everyone, just two people that seem the most supportive.

·       Think about social media in terms of energy zapping, limit the time to half an hour in the morning and half an hour in the evening.

·       Write down month on month what you feel you can handle socially. 1 night or 2 nights, who with? What activity. That way you do not agree to John’s bowling night at work or Alana’s pizza meal and stop over when you really feel overwhelmed and struggling to cope.

·       Notice your feelings after interactions with people, are you anxious, angry, belittled, sad, intruded upon. Take some time to think about this and what this interaction is about (this takes time) and then see about how you could change the dynamic with this person or maybe if this person is healthy in your life.

·       Write a to do list (no more than 3 items per day if non-work/school related)

·       Evaluate each day in terms of what went better than you expected and why it went better. Anxiety is always without detail. The more positive detail observation the better.

·       Plan exercise outside. I talk about outdoor swimming all the time, I do it long distance because I love the feel of the water. You don’t have to do it long distance to feel the benefits, 5-10-minute immersion in water outdoors is transformative, I’m not making it up, here is a link to an article about it https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-45487187

·       Learn about anxiety and the brain in these links https://helenharveycounselling.blogspot.com/2017/11/anxiety-learning-lesson-2-whats-going.html

And also, potential causes. There are 10 anxiety lessons on this page to help you learn about anxiety and manage it.




Keep in mind that 1 in 6 people suffer with chronic anxiety at any time. We weren’t built for a life of iPhone and love island. We were built for communities and interaction, of making and doing and exercising. Collaboration and relationships. We are growing anxious because are systems are overwhelmed. It will be helpful to employ techniques and actions that settle the system. This list is a start.
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