Dealing With Anxiety

Friends, my aims with how I communicate are to be as honest, open and helpful as possible. With that means getting under the surface. For the past 19 months I've been working freelance and teaching yoga. I made the choice not to go back to a 9-5 role in 2015. It has been SUCH a huge learning curve for me. I've had to learn to believe in myself, make mistakes, learn from them and ultimately grow very quickly. With that has come a good old dose of anxiety. Anxiety can be the thief of joy. As someone who works from home it can be easy to not leave the house and start to magnify worries to the point that they're totally out of proportion.A couple of weeks ago I had reached a point where I felt heavy with anxiety. I really needed advice from others and I had to step back and look at my behaviours to try and pin point areas that needed addressing. I turned to a couple of trusted friends and also Adas list, a community for women in tech where I reached out about anxiety issues. It turns out this anxiety beast affects a lot of us. So I thought it might be useful to share some tips I've gathered.1. Triggers - If you've been experiencing anxiety can you take some time to write down what you think might be triggering it? Understanding what sets off anxiety allows you to take control back and become better equipped to deal with it. Keeping a daily journal for any thoughts that crop up is so insightful and a great resource to look back on. I was introduced to this practice by Naomi Absalom when I did her mentoring course through the Artist's Way by Julia Cameron.2. Rituals - Before I moved I had a pretty much daily meditation practice. I'm not talking big minutes here, 10-15 a day worked for me. I used to resist meditation a lot thinking it wasn't for me but after a week or so of regular practice I began to crave the stillness. If you're new to practice don't worry, it's not about stopping thoughts all together it's about discovering how to not get so caught up in them. It's very much NOT about perfection. If you can just manage 5 mins of deep breaths to pause then good for you, you will start to notice a difference. Personally I also find it very helpful to light some inscence and sit with a crystal so I turn it into more of a sacred practice. Having a crystal in my hand acts as an anchor so when my mind drifts I refocus on the stone and am brought back to the present. I also try not to look at my work until I have meditated and written some pages in my journal so that I approach the day with a clearer mind.3. Breaks - Get outside, take a break and allow yourself to pause. If you keep worrying and worrying it's easy to fall down the rabbit hole and loose perspective. Close your laptop or whatever you're doing, stretch your legs and give yourself permission to get some fresh air. When you take a break allow yourself to take some conscious, deep breaths. I find one hand on the heart and one hand on the belly to be very soothing as I breathe deeply.4. Talk - Chat to your loved ones and share your worries. I was amazed at the response from Adas list, so many women (and men) struggle with anxiety, imposter syndrome etc. By just chatting to people and realising I'm not the only one and that people care I felt a lot better.5. Calmer You - I've had the pleasure of several hypnotherapy sessions with Chloe from Calmer You and she is brilliant. Her website has a huge amount of free resources to help with anxiety so check it out.6. Self Care - Have you done anything for yourself recently? Are you just giving and not nourishing you? Ask yourself these questions and if the answer is no can you take some time out to do something nice. Just so you can get a little fresh perspective on things.There are of course many other things that you can do but these are just some of my top tips that I've personally found to help manage my anxiety.