At some point, we all encounter anxiety in our life. I never really had it when I was younger b
ut it seemed to come in full swing during my college days. I spent a lot of time trying to work through it with breathing exercises and talking it out with other people. While I found this somewhat effective, it was a short term fix. As the anxiety continued into my adult life, I have found some fundamental points that I consistently revisit when the anxious feelings arise.
First, I try to identify the problem. Strangely enough, it seems that I do not even realize all the stressors in my life until I begin to have the anxious feelings…the heavy chest, shallow/fast breathing, and increased blood pressure. As soon as these symptoms hit, I examine what is currently going on in my life that is putting me in this anxious state. One life situation that continues to put me in this state is when I have to cover for one, or possibly more than one, coworker at a time. Really, any time I have a lot going on, I start to go down this path.
After identifying the issue, I try to remove it, if possible. With my work situation, I am not able to remove it so I move on to the next step – controlling what I can of the situation. If I have a heads up that someone is going to be out, then I can plan ahead to have as much of my own work done as possible. Unfortunately, this is not always the case and I am thrown into someone else’s workload. In situations like that, I take a moment for myself and write out a schedule, which can also be seen as a to-do-list. I have to prioritize what needs done first and block out certain times that is dedicated to said tasks. As we all know, interruptions happen so I will basically “pause” the time I have devoted to this certain task and then return to it when I can, “resuming” my time for the project. I typically create multiple time blocks throughout my day to stay on task which helps me to optimize the time I am spending on each task.
What I love even more than writing out a schedule is checking things off, so after I complete each thing, it gets checked off. I progress with this method throughout my heavy workload days until, eventually, I have completed all my tasks, whether it be work related or personal.
On a side note – A few things I do try to do throughout the day is remembering to control my breathing by taking deep, slow breaths.
Another thing is coffee – it has its pros and cons. Coffee can be an anxiety enhancer so I have to look at each individual situation before I pour myself a cup. If I am working around the house or have a crazy busy day at work then bring on the caffeine. On the other hand, if I have to drive somewhere unfamiliar or I am in a new situation (example: interviewing for a job, presenting/public speaking, or being around new people) I try to steer away from the caffeine.
I also noticed my anxiety more when I was on a hormonal birth control. I know everyone is different but it is something to think about. The timing of me starting the pill and anxiety creeping into my life was a short span so I do believe this lead to a lot of my anxiety, at the beginning, and since stopping it, my anxiety happens less frequently.
To recap, When feeling anxious:
- Identify what is causing the anxiety
- Eliminate the cause OR control what you can
- Make a schedule, designate times to certain tasks and do not budge on this
- Check off tasks completed from the schedule/ to-do-list
- Maintain deep, slow breathing
Something to think about – could caffeine or hormones (birth control) be making anxiety worse for you?