Destination Peach

Where Reality and Inspiration Meet

21 Easy Ways I Quickly Reduce Anxiety

The moments when I feel very anxious, my mindfulness practices like meditation and deep breathing go out the window. When I’m in the fight instead of flight mode…or in my lizard instead of wizard brain…it takes me sometime to be conscious of the tools I know to reduce my anxious feelings. The other day when I was worrying about the stressors of life, my anxious feelings catapulted me to a place I didn’t want to be. Trying to progressive and relieve myself of an anxiety attack…I said to myself “what can you do in this very moment to stop feeling anxious?” I made a mental note of things I like to do and committed to doing those exact things. True enough, by the end of the day I was feeling a little better.

Here are the 21 easy ways I reduced my anxiety. Hopefully, these 21 practices can help or inspire you to construct your own practices in moments you are feeling anxious.

  1. Accept that I am feeling anxious
  2. Sleep!
  3. Go get a smoothie
  4. Listen to a podcast
  5. Take a drive
  6. Watch YouTube
  7. Talk to my mom
  8. Sit in the park
  9. Silence my phone
  10. Not respond to phone calls/text messages
  11. Stretch
  12. Take a nice long bath or shower
  13. Get dressed in my favorite color
  14. Light incenses
  15. Read uplifting content
  16. Listen to meditation music
  17. Eat a good meal
  18. Make jewelry
  19. Clean up
  20. Go for a walk
  21. Acknowledge that tomorrow will be a better day

The running theme throughout these 21 practices is being kind to myself. Remember to be kind to yourself and take-it-easy!

Until next time…

– Peach

Unfriendly Arrival: Living With Anxiety

anxietyAnxiety has a funny way of reappearing. Just when you think you’ve freed yourself of anxiety, it returns. Randomly! Over the past several months I have been doing an AMAZING job of not having any anxiety attacks. I’ve felt anxiety symptoms here and there, but no attacks. What has helped me get my anxiety under control has been therapy and a series of regimens. This past Sunday morning I received and unfriendly arrival, in the form of back-to-back anxiety attacks. In the moment of trying to talk myself through my anxiety, I felt defeated. Defeated in knowing that I had lost control of my anxiety. Defeated in knowing that it would take my body sometime to recover from, the intense mental and physical effects of anxiety. Defeated in knowing that I had shit to do on Sunday that could not get done. Defeated in knowing that nothing felt better than lying in bed away from the world. Through my defeat, I found clarity in my shamelessness.

When it comes to discussing anxiety, I’m not afraid to talk about it. Anxiety has been something I struggled with since I was a child. It wasn’t until my adult life, as I laid in the ER room…that I was actually able to identify my disorder. Anxiety is associated with fear, worry, and stress. Like many people in the world…I worry and stress at an absurd amount. Society attaches stigmas to anxiety. The stigma of your crazy, your too emotional, your making shit up, and your just nervous. The stigmas impose unrealistic views about what anxiety truly is.

And no, telling someone with anxiety to:

  1. Calm down
  2. Stop worrying
  3. There’s nothing wrong with you
  4. Relax

Does not work. To all the people overcoming some form of anxiety you’re not alone. You don’t have to suffer in silence, ask for help. Live your truth!

Until next time…

-Peach