Keeping Anxiety At Bay

I have suffered from anxiety - and not just those nervous little butterflies that you get before public speaking - I'm talking gigantic moths that flit around in your stomach - can't turn your brain off - eyes the size of saucepans at 3am in the morning  - heart racing - palm sweating anxiety.

 

Here's some tips for helping to keep anxiety at bay.

1. LAUGH OFTEN - nothing feels better than the full belly, do a little bit of pee in your pants, tears rolling down your face laugh. Don't be afraid to laugh at yourself too - nothing is ever THAT BAD!

Pretty sure I'm holding my belly here to hold the wee in!

2. CHANGE YOUR ATTITUDE - Sounds a little harsh, and trust me, when my partner first said it to me I almost lost my shit, but it works. Whenever I'm ranting, grumpy, whinging, or feeling a bit crappy about something, I tell myself to change my attitude: try it - it works.

3.  SAY NO! Why is it that as kids we say no all of the time but as adults, we often experience verbal diarrhea and blurt out yes! A simple philosophy that I now follow is "if it's not a HELL YES then it's a HELL NO".  This book sums it up!

Via

4. WHY SO SERIOUS? Don't take life too seriously. I used to be the BIGGEST stress head/perfectionist/control freak out there and it was EXHAUSTING! I'm definitely learning to let go - DELEGATE, DELEGATE, DELEGATE and to use my new saved energy to just have fun, and go with it! I mean really - what's the WORST that can happen?

Then you get more photos like this!

And crazy fun times like this!

5. PUT YOU IN YOUR DIARY!  And don't bail on yourself - I'm sure you hate people bailing on you!

6. FOCUS ON YOUR BREATHING. What on earth am I talking about - don't we just breath subconsciously? Well yes, you'd be dead if you didn't - but I'm talking about consciously breathing. Taking a HUGE deep breath in and then exhaling quickly! It feels SO much better!

I hope these help you as much as they help me!

Look after yourself and those around you,

Kirsty xxx