When anxiety hits, remember to ground yourself in the present moment.
—Andreia Esteve
How do you ground yourself? I focus on taking calming breaths when I start to feel tense. That’s become automatic now. Then if there’s something I can do about the problem right away, I start taking action. If not I continue taking calming breaths while I solve puzzles, deal with my email, comment on blogs, etc. It keeps me relaxed while I connect with my values and wait to decide what, if anything, I need to do next.
Last year Sandra said hers were,
Reading, blogging, creating and at really bad times I quote scripture in my head.
What do you do?
March 17, 2023
mine is still the same as last year and has been for years, most of my life. when the present moment is bad, it is hard to do any of the reading, blogging etc
Do you ever try deep, relaxed breathing? That helps a lot for most people.
Like Scarlet said, after all tomorrow’s another day. I know in the morning things will look brighter. I try, now, to not catastrophize.
Good for you!
Interesting. Back in the day, I remember someone saying the reason many people in high-stress environments enjoy smoking is, with each puff they’re taking deep breaths. It’s been 10 years, but ya. When I’m faced with something unpleasant my first instinct is to long for a cigarette.
They sell hollow tubes, and instructions, to breathe through to remind people to do the deep breathing. I thought that was interesting, but I don’t want to wear something like that around my neck when I can just breathe by myself. 🙂
My solution is to immerse myself in doing something. It could be blogging, working on my book, or simple housework. And, since it’s spring, I always have a shelf to tidy, or a floor to clean. And walking…always that.
Yes! The quality of our lives depends on how we focus our energy and our attention. 🙂
I organize, clean out drawers and cabinets. It restores my feeling of order and being in control.
Yes, that feeling of being in control, knowing we’re not helpless.
Deep breathing here. I once had a dental assistant remind me to take deep breaths and it helped.
Yes, that’s what I go to first.
twice in the last week, with a bad bus trip – I’ve got off the bus at a random stop – nowhere the destination I had in mind…
the first time was some people arguing in shouting mode – and I was by a few shops that I’d never stopped at.
yesterday it was at least 20 minutes after the rude, extremely overweight young man swore at me, when I was trying to help him, find a bell that worked. I got off with another lass who was transferring buses but who was so kind to me… I had some cookies so I ate them to calm down.
If I’m at home, and go “out” – I’ll just go…and I usually calm down as it’s like a kind of “thinking time”
That was too bad, but it sounds as if you handled it well.
Years ago my first instinct was to grab a cigarette.
Cleaning has always been something I would do to. If it’s more worry than stress I tend to say a lot of prayers.
Prayers are a good way to get our minds off worries I’m glad you quit smoking!