Good morning, lovelies, and happy Monday! Today I am writing this post coming at ya hot after a stressful and chaotic weekend. My anxiety was at an all-time high trying to just balance *all the things* and I found myself feeling just meh. Today, I’d like to share with you some tools in my own personal toolbox that I use to help get myself out of a rut when I’m stuck in my own head.
I’ve struggled with anxiety for as long as I can remember. My anxiety manifests in that I often feel like I’m not doing enough and I feel the need to accomplish, accomplish, accomplish. My constant state of being is in a fanatic rush and/or a looming sense of guilt that I’m not where I should be. (Don’t worry guys, we are working through this in therapy, lol).
Before we get into it, here is my little disclaimer: More often than not, when I publish a blog post that is related to mental health, I hope you all know that I try to be as real and transparent as possible. Because this is my personal blog, I will share a lot of my own opinions and experiences that I have lived through. It doesn’t mean that I assume we share the same experiences. I don’t expect the tools and strategies that I share on here to work for everyone. I just like sharing things that have helped me when I’m struggling with my own mental health, and if it works for someone else, great!
I have so many goals and things I am working to accomplish, and I’ve been stressing myself out trying to balance all things in my life. Sound familiar, anyone? What usually happens is that I totally overwhelm myself by making a to-do list five pages long, and I feel constantly in a state of rush trying to accomplish all of my shit. And it’s actually hilarious because I am well-aware that I DO THIS TO MYSELF lol. I’m literally just trying to survive the fake little world that I’ve created for myself. So, that’s my anxiety in a nutshell. 😉
Anyways, I got a bit off topic here, but last week I was feeling pretty uninspired and a bit depressed. The first thing I thought to myself was, “If I were my own client or friend, how would I try to help them? How would I advise them?” Because here’s a dirty little secret: Sometimes as helpers, we are notorious for sharing coping strategies that we don’t actually always use ourselves. I started to reflect on *tiny* things that make myself happy/ feel inspired that don’t require a lot of effort. i.e., I’m not going to buy a one-way ticket to the Maldives to get the #selfcare that I need (although I fricken wish.) These are tangible little things that I do to help get myself out of my head when I’m stuck in Anxiety Land.
1.) Go out in sunlight.
There is a reason why us midwest folk are depressed November-April (lol, kidding but not really). Sunlight is a major component of feeling healthy, and there is so much research to back this up. When I am feeling overwhelmed, I try to obtain as much natural vitamin D as possible. Just to show you a tangible example, the other day I was reading for grad school on my couch and felt overwhelmed and a bit bored. So, I simply, moved the party from my couch to my outside porch, and read in the sunlight. After 20 minutes of reading, I took a break and threw some tennis balls to my dog. Just feeling the sun on my face instantly boosted my mood and allowed me to take a deep breath.
2.) Get out of the silence.
I value my alone time, but sometimes, I sit with my own silence too much. This can be a hot take. I know that sometimes when we are having a bad mental health day, we need to sit with our feelings. But actually, some days we don’t. Maybe we need to get out of the house and see our friends. Sometimes we need to put on a podcast that we find hilarious. Maybe we need to put a movie on in the background while we work. Maybe we need to spice up our surroundings a bit so things aren’t so quiet. We don’t have to necessarily be social, but sometimes we need to just tell our inner critic within our heads to *shut the hell up*.
3.) Use the Voice Memo app to record your thoughts, and then affirm yourself.
I have never been an “audio journaler” until this past week. This is a technique that my own mental health therapist suggested I try to help calm my inner negative thoughts. She challenged me to contradict the thoughts as I have them in real time. This is hard to do if you are like me and have a constant stream of negative thoughts. Honestly, just recording yourself contradicting these thoughts is a huge way to incorporate awareness and mindfulness into your life.
Tangible Example: I found my inner critic saying I was a bad mom because I allow my kid to watch too much Cocomelon (that show is like baby cocaine, #iykyk). So, I whipped out my Voice Memo app and physically recorded myself saying, “You are not a bad mom. You do not need to entertain your child 24/7. Your child will be okay if he watches Cocomelon for an hour today. You are not traumatizing him.” My point is, saying things out loud helps bring awareness to your thoughts and allows you to actively challenge them. It doesn’t move mountains and magically make the thoughts go away, but it does help a bit.
4.) Go for a five minute walk.
Seriously, just five minutes. And go outside. Get out of Anxiety Land (aka your own head). It will do wonders for your mental health. Again, this is one of those tips I share that I really need to do more of. Ahhh, the grounding powers of nature. *frantically jots ‘go for a walk’ in Google calendar*.
5.) Remember that we are all just humans on a floating rock.
But for real, it’s all going to be okay. We are coexisting together on a floating rock in space. We are all just trying to do our best. We create our own distorted realities. We decide what actually matters to us. Sometimes grounding myself that things actually don’t matter as much as I *think* they do makes me feel better. Ya know?? I am spiritual so I try to ground myself to this existentialist belief. Feel free to craft this around your own spiritual, religious or non-beliefs. How can you ground yourself right now? What matters to you?
Let me know what you think about some of my controversial hot takes! Also, be sure you are following along on Instagram if you aren’t already!! 😉
Xo,
Chels
