Rewriting My Story: How I Transformed Anxiety into Resilience and Self-Discovery

This week has been Mental Health Awareness week and the theme this year is Anxiety.?

Online, I have seen a lot of posts on how to cope with anxiety. The Top 10 tips and tricks to decrease anxiety…?

With so many posts flooding the timeline, I instead want to share a little bit about my story with managing my mental health and how I manage anxiety in my own life.

My mental and physical health is a top priority in my life because I know without it, I cannot be the best I can be in my work, for my family, my friends and for the world at large.

What I know to be true is when anxiety consumes you - it is really difficult to concentrate, let alone complete even the basic of tasks.

In 2018 I had one of the worst years of my life. It was one thing after another. It was relentless. Not only did it affect me physically, but emotionally, mentally and financially.?

I’ll spare you the long details but it lead to me becoming bedridden and mentally, emotionally and financially at my worst.

I was filled with so much anxiety about everything, It took some time to slowly piece myself back together again.

Anxiety can show up in your life in so many different ways and in different areas of your life.

For some, anxiety can show up in the area of relationships.

For others it can be in their work, money and finances and the uncertainty of the future.

It can also show up when big life events occur like a death or a health scare.

Today, I want to share with you how I personally manage my own anxiety.?

• I Breathe and slow right down. I focus my mind to my breath to slow down the racing thoughts, to slow down the spiralling and anxiety filled sensations and emotions I feel flooding my body. I bring myself to the present moment. This was tough for me to learn at first. It took A LOT of repetition. I often found my anxiety was linked to worrying over what has happen in the past or what is going to happen in the future. I had to train and allow myself to be in the present moment.

• I manage my thoughts. I have become very disciplined with my thoughts, the narrative(s) I engage in. For me, There are simply certain thoughts I just won’t even go there with. I choose to simply be unavailable to certain thoughts as I know it will send me negatively spiralling. I have set a standard for myself, to myself on how I connect and speak to myself and how I think about myself. I no longer allow myself to sink into certain types of dark/negative thought patterns that I know will flare up my anxiety. Now don’t get me wrong, I allow myself to experience the full range of my emotions. I Believe that is healthy. But I no longer let myself engage in thoughts that won’t serve me in the long run. I have learnt to know and understand the difference between a negative emotion that is natural, normal and part of the living experience and negative thoughts that are simply unproductive and unkind to myself.

• I am kind, compassionate and patient with myself. I found tools that helped me to self sooth when experiencing an anxiety attack. I even developed some of my own ways to sooth myself and be compassionate with myself. I let myself off the hook and choose to be generous and gracious with myself.?

• EVERYONE has a degree of anxiety about something in their life. I know I am not alone. Going at it alone is tough and I know I don't have to. I reach out where it’s appreciate and allow myself to get the support I need.

• Move. Yes, I move my body. Moving my body is a non-negotiable for me as the mental benefits I experience with moving my body let alone the physical benefits is too powerful to ignore. For me, there is something about simply going for a walk, dancing it out, lifting a weight or stretching the body that clears my mind, calms my mind, expands my mind and opens my channels to receive and be more. Movement was one of the foundational pieces to regulating my nervous system after going through so much in 2018. It was a powerful outlet that helped me channel my anxiety in a useful way.?

• Journalling is another powerful tool I use and still use today to channel my anxiety. Getting everything out from my head down on paper is such a powerful way to release. Another way is engaging in something expressive. I use movement and dance as I have mentioned - but many use art, painting, dancing, acting, talking it out etc. Anything that allows you to simply express what going on inside of you.

Let me know how does anxiety show up for you? What do you do to manage it?