Every person can experience stress and anxiety in their life, but for some people these feelings can completely take over their day. Moments of stress can spiral into an entire day where you feel paralyzed because outing things in motion creates so much anxiety for you that you shut down all together. You are not alone. While you probably feel like this is a vicious circle the truth is that there are ways to combat this, take back control, and enjoy your life, even in times of stress.
1. Get Organized
For many people, a common cause of their stress and anxiety comes from the chaos of their daily life. Having a lot on your plate and no system in place to be efficient and organized can get overwhelming fast. Think about their pieces of your day that are consistent, and predictable, these are the best places to start implementing organization.
Meals are a great example. It is guaranteed that you need to eat every single day, but there is much that needs to happen to get those meals on the table. Making lists, grocery shopping, prepping, and cooking the food, then cleaning it all up afterwards, whew! Taking away some of the guesswork from your meals with grocery delivery services, or even a snack subscription box, means that you have something checked off your daily to do list, that you only had to dedicate a small amount of time and energy to.
Snack subscription boxes are awesome because you simply sign up, and it’s done. You will have a selection of snacks to fill your pantry and have ready and available whenever you need something quick and easy. You can join Munch Addict and purchase a snack subscription box to have snacks from all over the world delivered monthly. Whether you join the club or purchase as a gift for a friend or family member also looking to create some ease in the meal planning, this is sure to help decrease daily chaos.
2. Be Open Minded
One of the biggest disservices you can do to yourself when trying to cope with stress and anxiety is reject suggestions for ways to treat it. Treatment can mean anything from getting acupuncture treatments, to opting to take medication to help level out your brain’s chemicals. Either way, being open minded to all opportunities is what will give you the best chance to rid yourself of these feelings.
It is also helpful to keep in mind that what works for one does not work for all. Trying things that have been suggested to you through family or friends, a doctor, or even your own research might take some trial and error to find the right solution for you personally. Do not be discouraged if something that made a large impact in your friends’ life does not do the same for you. Keep trying and remain honest with yourself. Find the balance between giving solutions a fair shot and switching gears when something is not working.
3. Break the Stigma
It is not uncommon for those who deal with stress and anxiety to retreat into themselves and stay silent about their troubles, but this is not a healthy step towards solving the problem. By allowing the people in your life who love and support you to participate in your process you are breaking the stigma that surrounds these delicate topics.
Additionally, some of these same people may be the root of your stress or anxiety, intentionally or not. And by sharing with them some of your triggers you can show what you need to be able to maintain some peace within your own mind. For example, maybe you have a parent who loves to pop in unexpectedly and bring you food, and while you love them and appreciate their generosity, the unannounced visit is something that stresses you out. If you never share this with them, they will continue to do it, and you will continue to feel anxious. Instead, you could lovingly let them know how much you enjoy the gesture but a quick text with a heads up asking if this is a good time is a boundary that you need respected.
4. Do Not Own Other People’s Problems
There is a fine line between supporting your loved ones and taking on their troubles. Allowing things to live inside your mind rent-free does not do any good for anyone involved. It can be difficult to have boundaries, especially with the people you love the most, but boundaries are incredibly healthy and an essential piece of mental health. Once you are able to confidently say to yourself that someone else’s problems should not create heaviness in your own life, you will feel significantly less anxious. Do not allow yourself to believe that this is selfish, or unkind. In fact, by freeing up your brain space with this removed worry you are creating space to help act or problem solve with your loved one and show your support in that way.
5. Fight the Urge to Conform
Keeping up with the Joneses is one of the oldest cliches around, and it is also one of the most stressful. This saying suggests that you need to be sure that your life aligns with the perfection of the fictitious Jones family. Be sure that you make the same amount of money, have comparable homes, take the same level of vacations, the list is really endless. This is incredibly toxic and certainly stress and anxiety inducing.
Fight the urge to conform and live confidently inside your own authenticity. It is natural to observe your peers and have an inner monologue of if your lives are running parallel or not but learning to embrace it when they don’t is the secret. And the deeper truth is that, even if you could keep up with the Joneses, living someone else’s dream is not going to make you happy in your own life. If everyone in your neighborhood has a dog, and you get one to fit in, but in fact do not have room for the responsibility of a pet in your life, all you have now done is dedicated your time, money, and energy to something that is going to make you feel stressed and anxious, that does not have any real bearing on if you as a person fit in or not.
