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Hi everyone. Today I wanted to write a post about mental health. If you don't know, I deal with anxiety and I have done for years. I've tried various strategies in the past, most of which didn't last but there was a period when some things actually helped and I saw a noticeable improvement in my anxiety and mood. I wanted to review some of those things here so that I can prioritise doing these things regularly again and in case it might help any of you.
Mindfulness
I was fortunate enough to participate in a mindfulness course and over time I really noticed it helping! Things that helped me include:
Breathing meditation
- Sit down
- Close my eyes
- Focus on my breathing, each time- in and ou
- When thoughts come, aknowledge them but don't interact- thoughts are like buses, you don't have to get on them. Recognise your thoughts and body sensations but just observe them with kindness, do not interact with them.
Drop things that drain your energy and you don't have to do and focus on positives and good things that make you feel good and give you energy.
- Stop feeling you need to be productive
- Recognise bad habits and change to good things
- Focus on things that make you happy and things you are grateful for
Every day write 10 things you are grateful for
Be mindful in everything you do, enjoy each thing and focus on the positives
- Recognise small things in life like how pretty something is or how wonderful
- Focus on what you are doing right then and not anything else, enjoy it
Think of anxiety as just a wonky compass trying to throw you off
Do not interact with the worry, accept it's your anxiety, let it go, go do something else
- Knowing that if I keep worrying it WILL keep going.
- I should not interact with the worry.
- Let it go, accept your anxiety and even say to it to bring it on.
- The worst that will happen is I will feel unwell and this will pass.
- Even if I feel really bad- accept it and it will pass, it's my anxiety.
Try not to seek reassurance
Don't be hard on yourself and put pressure on yourself to do lots of things. It's ok not to do anything.
- You don't have to do a lot of things
- You don't have to do anything in your spare time
- It doesn't matter
- Mental health is more important
These strategies need to be continued regularly. Even if I don't feel great or I feel better, I must keep them up to continue to see an improvement. Please let me know if you've tried any of these strategies or if you are thinking about trying any.
Thank you to my Ko-Fi members!~
Rebecca Crunden- check out her fantasy and sci-fi books and novellas
Josh de Lioncourt- check out his fantasy books!
Charles Edward Williams- check out his Roman fiction book
Jill Horton- check out her children's book
Dorian J. Sinnott- check out his horror books and short story and poetry collections
R. G. Roberts- check out her sci-fi books and fantasy Kindle Vella
Rachael DK- check out her memoir and poetry book
MJ Hutto- check out her fantasy books
Izzy Matias- check out her YA contemporary book and one of her blog posts
Adam Peter Johnson- check out his sci-fi dystopian book
Phannie- check out her blog and follow her on Twitter
O. J. Barré- check out her fantasy books- The Awen Trilogy and The Druids of Marduk
Barry Ryerson- check out his middlegrade fantasy book
Rebecca Rose- check out her family saga book 1 and book 2
Mellie Miller- paranormal romance writer, check out her author page and website
The tactics that works the most for me is looking at the anxiety like the « annoying uncle » that comes in unannounce once in a while.. and while it’s storming inside my head; I try to ignore it the most possible. Letting it just storm through but without necessarely paying attention to it; as I know that eventually the storm will stop- usually when I wake up the next day.
ReplyDeleteKristina @ books-and-dachshunds.com