Recognizing and Managing Anxiety

Sometimes life can become a little crazy and all of a sudden, you may find yourself struggling to juggle all of the balls at once without letting one fall to the ground.

More often then not, our bodies have been giving off signals for some time to try and make us slow down and take a break,  but quite often we're stuck in routine and we're focused on certain outcomes that we forget to listen to what our body is trying to tell us.

Your body is a pretty amazing thing and sometimes it knows your limitations and stress levels way before you accept that things are becoming a bit much.

Signs to look out for include;

An inability to sleep because you can't turn your brain off.

Feeling like you have an elephant sitting on your chest, making it difficult to breath.

Light headedness and feeling dizzy.

Inability to concentrate on simple tasks.

Second guessing your thoughts,  decisions and actions.

Losing confidence in things that you were once comfortable doing.

Pimple and ulcer breakouts.

Weight loss or gain due to appetite loss or gain.

Headaches.

These are signs that your body is experiencing negative stress, and is activating flight or fight responses to manage the situation.

It's really important that you listen to your body and realize that it's time to make some changes in your life so that you can manage your stress levels, and avoid anxiety attacks.

While it's often difficult to accept that you're not coping as well as you thought, there's no shame in needing to slow down your life to put your health first.

At the end of the day, if you can't look after yourself then you can't look after anyone else.

It might mean that you have to step down from a role for awhile, or change jobs, or speak to someone about how you are feeling. It could be a matter of writing a pro's and cons list about things in your life and realizing where it is that you want to focus your energy and what things aren't so helpful at this point in your life.

Sometimes it might mean that you have to make difficult decisions and changes,  but it will always be worthwhile if you come out feeling less stressed and more in control of your life and emotions.

Anxiety is a really tough illness to suffer from and can have real impacts on your life and how you think,  act and feel, so it's really important that you take the time to assess your stress levels to try and prevent anxiety from taking hold of your life.

Just remember that your health is more important then anything else in your life and that it's okay to make changes to manage your stress.

Look after yourself and those around you,

Kirsty xxx