How Do I Get Rid of Anxiety: Part Four

How Do I Get Rid of Anxiety: Part Four

Welcome back to the set of anxiety skills section of this blog series! 

This week is one of my most favourite skills to share, and there are a few ways to try it out! 

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Now this is one of my favourite skills because you can do it anywhere, and there are a couple of variations on how to do it – so you get to choose which one you like best and go with it!

Some important things to note:

*When you are focusing on what you feel in terms of touch, it is important to not focus on how you feel inside your body as this exercise is mean to bring your awareness away from your internal experience and into your external experience. Here you want to focus on what your skin feels from the outside world. For example, if you are sitting down, you may feel the pressure of your bum on the chair, your back on the backrest, your clothing touching your arm, the pressure of your feet on the floor, etc

*To find things to smell, you can smell object around you, either palm of your hand (they will most likely smell different because of things you have touched), your clothing, and you always have your armpits to smell- they are a great source of scent to focus on.

*For taste, see if you can taste the last thing you ate or drank. If you can’t notice anything, have a sip of water or other beverage and notice the flavours.

*When trying to names different sounds you hear, allow your mind to get a bit quiet and see if you can pick up background noises. First you can focus on any noises you are making (can you hear yourself breathe?), what is happening in the room or area around you (can you hear the humming of the lights? The furnace/air conditioner? The clicking of a clock?  Or the wind in your ears?), and even what is happening a further distance away? (can you hear people talking in another room, vehicles driving by outside the building nearby? Can you hear any aircrafts? Etc).

The Original

One way to do it is to go through your five senses, one with each number. I suggest pairing them up this way, as it can get a bit tricky trying to find 5 smells if you aren’t somewhere where there is a lot of scents to focus on.

5- Notice 5 things you see

4- Notice 4 things you feel/touch

3- Notice 3things you hear

2- Notice 2 things you smell

1- Notice 1 thing you taste

The Condensed

Another way to use this activity is to go through the easiest 3 senses for each number:

5- Notice 5 things you see, hear, and feel/touch

4- Notice 4 things you see, hear, and feel/touch

3- Notice 3 things you see, hear, and feel/touch

2- Notice 2 things you see, hear, and feel/touch

1- Notice 1 thing you see, hear, and feel/touch

Now with this version, it’s’ totally ok to repeat the things you see, hear and feel/touch as you count down. After all, it could be really hard to try and find 15 different things you hear if you are in a quiet space!

 

If this is something that you are struggling with, and would like to work on it with a counsellor, visit the Contact Me link on my website to schedule an appointment today.

If you want more information, skills and support with your mental health, make sure to sign up for my email list to hear about my upcoming online Course in Mental Health!

Know someone who might benefit from reading this information? Feel free to share this with them, and encourage them to sign up for my blog emailed directly to them!

And don’t forget to follow me on Instagram or Facebook @devanceciliacounselling for daily supports and information!

 

Photo cred: Nicholas Ng

How Do I Get Rid of Anxiety? Part Three

How Do I Get Rid of Anxiety? Part Three:

Welcome back to Part Three of How Do I Get Rid of Anxiety series!

This week’s post is getting into the good stuff- SKILLS!

The last four posts in this six-part series is all about skills. Skills you can use and practice in this moment; right here, right now!

So, naturally, let’s start with the simplest, easiest, and quickest skill first: Breathing.

Breathing

Breathing with intention is the easiest and most available skill to use. It can be hard for a lot of folks with anxiety to use breathing as their first skill however. This is because it gets you to focus on your breath and it most likely will feel very similar to the onset of anxiety or panic attacks. THIS IS NORMAL. And it does not mean you are bringing on anxiety. It just means that when you are experiencing anxiety, you are aware of your breathe and body – which is great! This won’t be as hard for you to learn to focus on. What might seem hard about it is to do it on purpose instead of avoiding it, or trying to get rid of it.

To breathe with intention, I invite you to practice each of these options once, to see if there is one in particular you prefer, then practice that one (or more) at least once per day.

Slow, deep breath:

Start by breathing slowly and deeply. You can count to four as you inhale and as you exhale, pausing for a moment in between each inhale and exhale (can be described as pausing at the top and the bottom of the breath). Continue for at least three breaths. Then allow yourself to breath as you normally would.

Belly breathing:

Focusing your breath into your belly. As you breathe in, focus on breathing to the bottom of your belly, or expanding your belly. As you breathe out, imagine letting all of the air out from your belly. Continue for at least three breaths. Then allow yourself to breath as you normally would.

Box breathing:

Box breathing is the idea of mentally breathing the shape of a box. As you inhale, imagine drawing up the side of a box. As you exhale imagine drawing across the top of the box. Inhale drawing down the other side of the box, and exhale drawing across the bottom of the box, coming back to where you started. Continue drawing the box until you feel settled.

And that’s it! These are three simple ways to start using your breath to help you with your anxiety. I hope at least one of them is helpful for you as you build your skills to help!

Stay tuned for for the next set of skills in next week’s post: How To Get Rid of Anxiety: Part Four!

 

If this is something that you are struggling with, and would like to work on it with a counsellor, visit the Contact Me link on my website to schedule an appointment today.

If you want more information, skills and support with your mental health, make sure to sign up for my email list to hear about my upcoming online Course in Mental Health!

Know someone who might benefit from reading this information? Feel free to share this with them, and encourage them to sign up for my blog emailed directly to them!

And don’t forget to follow me on Instagram or Facebook @devanceciliacounselling for daily supports and information!

 

Photo cred: rosario janza 

How Do I Get Rid of Anxiety? Part Two

How Do I Get Rid of Anxiety?: Part two- Anxiety explained.

Welcome back to the six part series on ‘How Do I Get Rid of Anxiety?’

I hope that the overview information provided last week was helpful and hopeful for you. 

Jumping right to it, I want to help provide information about the differences of anxiety, worry and panic, because that comes up often and sometimes used interchangeably when they are in fact different.

I hope that in explaining the differences between them, you can understand what has been troubling you. In particular, I hope you can utilize that information to help determine which skills will be helpful for you as we go through some of the skills in the coming weeks!

Anxiety

Anxiety is characterized as feeling restless, keyed up or on edge; easily tired, having difficulty concentrating, or feeling as though their mind has ‘gone blank’. You might also feel irritable, maybe you notice tension in your muscles, and your sleep is disrupted (difficulty falling or staying asleep, restless, poor sleep).

Anxiety is a physiological response we have as human beings, developed to protect us from harm. It helps increase our awareness and senses to perceive danger before it presents itself. For example, anxiety is really helpful when we are walking home by ourselves. It increases our senses (sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch) to notice what is going on around us. We can be more aware of the sounds of footsteps of someone walking nearby, or a door opening up at the house we are walking past, or even a car driving past us that is coming up from behind. It is really helpful for us as it makes us aware of our surroundings, and has our body ready to protect itself for safety.

Anxiety helps to protect us by activating our fight, flight or freeze response in our bodies. It increases our shallow breathing to try and bring more oxygen into out body. Our heart rate also increases to send blood and oxygen to our muscles to move. Anxiety tightens our muscles to prepare to run (flight), fight or keep still(freeze). It makes us sweaty so that we can cool ourselves off quickly. Even our vision becomes focused so we aren’t distracted by unnecessary objects. Anxiety also quiets the mind from focusing on things outside of the immediate future (to ensure survival), and it stops or slows down our digestion so that all of our energy can be spent on protecting ourselves.

Your body is responding to protect you, and anxiety is telling it to prepare, which is helpful when there is an actual threat happening, right?

The downside however, is that this response is really unhelpful when there are no threats around us or it keeps going. And that can be the trouble with anxiety – if we don’t know how to turn it down, it can really feel like it has taken over!

 

Worry

Now worry on the other hand is a bit different. While it can bring our attention to possible future concerns, it doesn’t really help is to do anything about it.  It doesn’t offer solutions or help; it just turns on the alarms (for things that haven’t happened) and keeps us focused on them. The analogy I like to use is thinking about worry as a rocking chair in a car race. You want to get to the finish line, but you can only rocking back and forth in the same spot.

So if you notice that worry is present, we need to actively do things to stop the rocking, and help us get back moving.

 

Panic

Panic (also frequently noted in panic attacks) is an abrupt, unexpected surge of intense fear or discomfort, that only lasts a few minutes. You might also notice a pounding or accelerated heart rate, sweating, shaking, shortness of breath or feeling as though you can’t breathe or are being choked, chest pain, nausea, feel dizzy, unsteady, light-headed or faint, feel cold or hot, experience numbness or tingling, feel as though you are not in reality or that you are not in your own body. You might fear that you are going crazy, losing control, or even fear you are dying.

After experiencing one of these episodes, you might also have consistent worry about having one again, or what might happen to you if it happens again. This is also why folks might feel that panic can ‘last for hours’ or even ‘all day’. It’s the high level of anxiety that follows a panic attack that makes it seem as though you are having one long experience of panic. You might notice that you have changed how you behave to try and avoid a panic attack from happening again.

 

Other Presentations

There are other presentations of anxiety as well. Some folks struggle with social anxiety, phobias, or agoraphobia. To keep it short, social anxiety is when you have fear or anxiety about social settings because you feel others might judge you. Phobias are where you have anxiety or fear about a specific object or situation (like being in an elevator). And agoraphobia is where have fear or anxiety about being in spaces (for example: parking lots, stores, crowds, or outside of your home). All of these situations is a response our bodies have to what our minds think is a real threat.

 

So what can we do about any of it if anxiety is hardwired in us, and our minds are perceiving threats that aren’t there?

We can practice some really easy, quick skills that can help keep our anxiety in check and reduce the impact of future anxiety when it arises. And by reducing the anxiety we experience regularly, we then reteach our body what a real threat is. Plus, the more we work at calming the mind and body, the better equipped we will be at managing anxiety when it pops up.

Stay tuned and check out next week’s article as we start diving into some very helpful skills!

 

If this is something that you are struggling with, and would like to work on it with a counsellor, visit the Contact Me link on my website to schedule an appointment today.

If you want more information, skills and support with your mental health, make sure to sign up for my email list to hear about my upcoming online Course in Mental Health!

Know someone who might benefit from reading this information? Feel free to share this with them, and encourage them to sign up for my blog emailed directly to them!

And don’t forget to follow me on Instagram or Facebook @devanceciliacounselling for daily supports and information!

 

Photo cred: Jayy Torres