You ARE In Control Of Your Anxiety

While it may not always seem like it, we are in control of our anxiety. Every time we practice facing our fears and succeed at doing so, we prove to ourselves that we do have the strength to get through this.

The problem sometimes occurs when we are experiencing a panic attack, anxiety, or low self-esteem. We see how we are feeling at the moment and we begin to wonder if we will ever be able to overcome our obstacles. However, with hard work and positive reminders of our progress, we can tell ourselves that while our anxiety may be strong, we are stronger.

Merely practicing is not always enough. While practicing, exercising, and stretching helps us realize that we are stronger than our anxiety, we need to really let our progress and success sink in. We need to do this so that when we are going through the panic attacks, anxious moments, or times of low self-esteem or self doubt, we can counter those negative feelings with positive thoughts.

Next time you are experiencing anxiety, remember all of the progress you have made. If you have made a physical list of your progress, look the list over. Remember all of the times that you have been anxious and still gotten through your anxiety and fears. Instead of negative thoughts, fill your mind with positive reminders, quotes, and affirmations. Just because your anxiety may trick you into feeling as though you aren’t stronger than it, doesn’t mean it’s true! You can control your anxiety and get through it

Sometimes It Happens

As I’ve previously mentioned, there may be times when we don’t practice and exercise as much as we should. Sometimes this is because we forget, we get lazy, we don’t feel well, or we simply put other things ahead of practicing. The thing is, though, that practicing is one of the most important things we can do in order to get through our anxiety. I know sometimes we may not feel like stretching or doing the exercises that we know we should and even have to do. The thing is, however, that whether or not we feel like doing them, if we want to get better, we have to get ourselves to practice.

With this being said, if you feel yourself beginning to slip when it comes to exercising, you need to remind yourself the reason you are doing this and why practicing is so important. Getting through our anxiety and other issues is extremely vital and is something that we should and need to take seriously. I understand that some days our motivation is greater than others, but if motivation seems harder to come by, then we have to find healthy ways to motivate ourselves to practice. Here are some tips to get yourself back on track:

1.) Remember why you need to practice and exercise. Remind yourself of the benefits that come with stretching. These benefits include: proving to yourself that you can get through your anxiety, showing yourself that you have the strength to overcome your obstacles, etc.

2.) If you find yourself having trouble remembering to exercise, set alarms on your phone, computer, alarm clock, etc. to remind yourself to practice facing your fears.

3.) Use music to exercise and stretch to. Music should be uplifting, positive, and something that you enjoy.

4.) If you have someone that is supportive of your practicing, kindly ask them if they’d mind making sure you practice. While it needs to be your responsibility in the end, there is nothing wrong with asking for guidance. Remember, however, that you cannot always expect someone to understand what you are going through.

5.) Record what you do to practice and the progress you make. This will help you make the correlation between practicing and progress. You will then be able to see how practicing really does help you make progress!

 

**If anyone has any additional tips or comments, please feel free to let me know!

“I Can Do This!”

In the past, I’ve mentioned the vast opportunities that are available to us in order to face our fears and practice proving to ourselves that we have the strength to get through our anxiety. Sometimes, as I have explained, opportunities seem clear to us and they seem to present themselves without too much thinking and creating on our part. Other times, however, we need to seek out opportunities so we can practice getting through our struggles.

Today I saw an opportunity to practice and exercise and I seized it. Yes, at first I was a little nervous. I started out slowly and then over time, realized that I could do more. Guess what? I was successful! I also noticed that once I started practicing, I kept wanting to continue doing so. It was as if the challenge was calling to me, reminding me that I needed to keep exercising in order to keep showing myself that I could do this. At one point, I became more anxious but I told myself, “I can do this!” and I did. I recorded my progress and now I can look back at it whenever I need to and remember that I was able to face my anxiety and succeed!

The thing that I’ve noticed is that oftentimes, when we are able to make progress, we want to keep doing that same exercise. We want and need to embrace the fact that we did well and keep pushing ourselves. When we prove to ourselves that we can get through our anxiety and other issues, we increase our confidence and the more confidence we have, the more faith and trust we have in ourselves! My advice is that when you come across an opportunity to practice, try to seize it. You don’t have to do everything all at once, but you should at least to try to do what you can. You never know what positive outcomes it will lead to!

Helpful Article

I saw this article and thought it was helpful. I’m not quite sure why they make it as though it’s only relevant to women, as I’m sure many men can understand these things as well, but I do think that they are important. Also, I thought the bottom portion of the webpage where it shows things you should never say to someone who struggles with anxiety was essential.

A few notes: I realize that when the article says ‘anxiety can be physical’ that they mean you can feel it throughout your body as if it’s a physical condition, but most of the times it is our minds that make our bodies feel that way. I think this is important to add because many of us confuse there being something physically wrong with us with our mind making us feel that way. However, it is true that others should understand that anxiety can cause how we physically feel. I hope the way I explained this makes sense. In addition, where the one person is holding up a sign saying that it’s not good to say that anxiety is all in our heads, that is true. When someone says this it makes us feel like we’re imagining these feelings or making them up, this simply isn’t true. At the same time, though, our anxiety does stem from our minds.

I think this article really raised some excellent points and if anyone has any other advice on how to help someone with anxiety or what they feel others need to try to understand, please feel free to comment!

12am and her mind wanders

I just wanted to share this post. I thought that the first image, the quote below it, and the anchor that says, “I refuse to sink” is very important and understandable for so many of us who struggle with anxiety. Also, I think that the quote about it being a blessing and a curse to feel so deeply is kind of true as well. While I don’t think it’s necessarily a curse, I do think it causes it to be difficult to sometimes accept when others don’t understand what we are going through. Thank you to THEOTHERSIDEOFP for showing us that we are not alone.

The “What Ifs”

For a lot of us who struggle with anxiety, a big issue for us are the “what ifs”. We often worry about things before they happen and sometimes the over-thinking that we do tends to cause negative or less than desired outcomes.

However, the “what ifs” that we have can also be used to our advantage. Don’t get me wrong, we should try our hardest not to over-think and worry about things going wrong. However, if we pay attention to what we are worried about happening, we will realize that it is these “what ifs” that we need to work on overcoming.

Let us say that you are worried about standing in line for a long period of time. Perhaps you say to yourself, “What if I feel out of control?” or “What if I feel that I need to get out of line?”. Think about these worries for a moment. If you are worried about standing in line for a long period of time, what should you do? You should try to find a way to practice standing for a certain period of time. First, you should start out slowly and then slowly increase the amount of time that you practice for.

We need to listen to ourselves. We need to realize that if we are worried about something, we need to work on getting through these fears. So, we should try to overcome these “what ifs” but in the meantime, we should also be learning from them. These “what ifs” are signs that we have a fear of something and it is these fears that we need to try to overcome and get through. We can get through our anxiety, we just have to practice and exercise consistently.

Advice About Medication Decisions

Please note that I am not a doctor or therapist. Most of the time, doctors know what is best for you and you should consider their advice. The following post is simply some advice that I have.

Yesterday I had an appointment with my psychiatrist. I must admit that I never really look forward to going. This is not because of who he is really or anything like that, but rather because I am not a fan of medication and being told to take more. I’m not saying that medication isn’t sometimes extremely helpful. I do take medication for my anxiety and I do believe that it helps. However, I believe that practice and exercise is what really helps more than anything in most cases.

Yesterday, once again, I was told to take more. I nicely told my psychiatrist that I was not ready to do this. While I understand that he feels there are benefits to me taking more, I also feel that I need to continue to give myself a chance to get better using the practicing and exercising that I’ve been doing and taking the amount of medication I’m currently on.

While we need to listen to our doctors, we also need to think for ourselves. My psychiatrist and therapist both understand how I feel about medication and while they make their suggestions, they also reassure me that the decision to take more is up to me. This is important. A psychiatrist should be considerate of how you feel. While it may be difficult to hear, they may say that they feel you should take more; that may be their professional opinion. What’s important is that you do not feel pressured and that they let you know that ultimately, you make the decision of whether or not you take more.

It’s important also that you don’t just take more medication because your psychiatrist says so. Yes, sometimes, if there’s a serious reason (say a chemical balance, etc.), you may need to take an amount that the psychiatrist tells you. However, many times taking more is a suggestion and you need to consider how you feel about it. You should never take more medication than you feel comfortable taking.

 

**Remember that it is very important not to take more than you are told to take by a medical professional.

Taking Advantage Of Opportunities

Nice weather outside? Try to go outside and practice. Someone have a gift card to go out for dinner and they invite you? Try to go and enjoy yourself! Any opportunity that you can find to make progress is something that you should look forward to and take advantage of.

Now what happens if you want to go somewhere with someone but you are worried to because they are not the most patient person in the world when it comes to dealing with your anxiety? Well, you can do one of three things. You could either not go at all (which is understandable under the circumstances), you could go anyway and remember that you are trying your hardest and that this is what matters, or you could ask someone that is more patient when it comes to helping you if they wouldn’t mind helping you try and practice.

The point to this post is that when opportunity presents itself, you should to try to get on board. There are so many opportunities to practice and we need to start realizing this and noticing them. If opportunities do not seem to present themselves, you need to create some! I wish everyone all the best and hopefully you are experiencing warmer weather!

You Will See A Difference

When you put a lot of effort into getting better, it will pay off. As I’ve said before, nothing you do in order to get better (as long as it’s a healthy step, of course) will go unnoticed by your mind or body. Working hard may not always be easy, but it is worth it. Also, you will see that progress in one area oftentimes has a way of spilling over to another.

 

Yesterday I was able to do some things that usually, I would be too anxious to do. It felt wonderful to be able to do something I wanted instead of being held back by anxiety. I’m not saying that everything went perfectly, but it went really well and I’m proud of myself. We need to be proud of ourselves for what we accomplish and we need to try not to focus on the negative. I did so many positive things yesterday and I was able to really reflect on all of it. I really do believe that, as my favorite quote points out, I’m stronger than these challenges and that they’re making me even stronger.

 
That’s another thing I’m learning. It’s one thing to take steps in order to make progress, but it’s another to really take it all in. We need to spend some time realizing that we’re improving and understanding why that is, so that we can continue to rise above our challenges and get through our anxiety and other issues.

 
I really hope everyone that is reading this blog gets the chance to feel how I felt yesterday as well as so many other times when I make progress and succeed. I believe that with constant, consistent practice and a positive attitude, we can all get through our anxiety. If anyone would like some extra advice, I’ll try my hardest to help. Again though, I am still struggling and still have a long way to go. I will continue to practice, exercise, and work hard because I know it works.

Have Faith In Yourself

Sometimes we plan on doing something and then at the last minute, we’re not sure that we can. Our anxiety begins to grow and self doubt starts to surface. However, we shouldn’t sell ourselves short, there is the possibility that we will prove ourselves stronger than we believe we are at the moment. To give an example, this morning I planned on doing something but then once I started worrying, I didn’t feel I could go through with it. However, in the end, not only did I end up doing what I originally planned on, but I did even more!

My point is this: we need to try to get through our anxiety and other issues. When we try, even if we’re not sure how much we can do, we give ourselves the chance to achieve our goals. Without even trying, there is no way that we’re going to have this chance, a chance that is very vital. So, here’s the lesson: try as hard as you can and see where this leads you, you may just surprise yourself. The truth is though, your progress shouldn’t come as a surprise, you can get through this!