Anxiety Busters: Sunshine & Sweat

Good Morning! How was your last week? Did you utilize the "two truths" tip to help shift your thinking to a more compassionate and gentle approach? Let me know in the comments below how that tip worked for you.

Our third anxiety buster tip involves two things: sunshine and sweat. Anxiety is typically physiological and emotional, meaning lots of people know they are feeling anxious when their body tells them so. Our bodies, when anxious, will exhibit any number of physical sensations: racing heartbeat, rapid breaths, stomach pains, diarrhea, excess sweat or mouth dryness. These are all due to your sympathetic nervous system activating. Here's an interesting article on the purpose and function of your sympathetic nervous system. It basically activates all the parts of your body needed in order for you to fight or evade a potential threat (a.k.a. the fight or flight response). The trouble with the anxious brain is that it perceives 'everything is a threat,' so the sympathetic nervous system is sent into overdrive. So, how do we combat this seemingly automatic response system within our bodies?

We utilize exercise (sweat) and nature (sunshine) to turn on our parasympathetic nervous system, which acts as the 'rest and digest' system. This is only part of the solution to reducing anxiety, but it is a HUGE part. I believe the reason we feel so exhausted, depleted, worried and tense is because modern life demands that our sympathetic nervous system be on all. the. time. Think about it: our news cycle is 24/7 (see here about using a news diet to manage your anxiety), we work jobs that are menial and have little physical reward, and we are surrounded by so much information that the brain cannot process it all. Yes, we are evolved creatures with big brains that can handle a lot. However, we are not computers and we do need resets from time to time. Thus, the practice of adding in exercise (cardiovascular and weight-bearing if possible) and time in nature to combat the ever constant hum of anxiety in our minds and bodily systems.

You can start small. Sitting outside for 15 minutes per day with your face in the sunshine can give you the equivalent of a daily dose of Vitamin D, as well as boosting your serotonin levels naturally. Exercise also boosts endorphins, which are the feel good chemicals in your brain, thus the 'sweat' part of this anxiety busters equation. If you're feeling wild, you can combine your sunshine and sweat challenges into one 15 minute walk outside daily. Try this everyday for 3 weeks and let me know how it works for you! It helps some people to rate their anxiety on a 1-10 scale, with 10 being really high, both before and then directly after their sunshine/sweat time.

See you next week with our final anxiety buster tip! I can't wait to connect and hear about how this anxiety busters series has been helpful for you. As always, you can reach me at info@giftofgritcounseling.com, if you are interested in connecting about possible therapy treatment with me.

Take care of yourself and those within your circle,

Anxiety Busters: Two Truths

Hello, hello! I hope your first week of anxiety busting went well. The news diet is a technique you can adopt as needed in order to take a break from the misery of the world. Let me know how news/social media dieting worked for you this week in the comments below.

Let's move onto our second anxiety buster tip, titled 'Two truths.' At its core, this is the tenet of multiplicity, or the idea that two things/perspectives can be true at the same time. What do I mean by "two things can be true at the same time?" Simple, your experience can be true and so can another person's experience. Or, you can be having a hard time and still be a good *partner, parent, friend, daughter, son, employee, etc. You can feel anxious and do *the hard thing* anyways. Both parts of the above statements can be true at the same time.

Let's take an example and break this idea of multiplicity down. Say you come home, and your partner is home early. There are dishes in the sink, the house is a wreck, and you walk in to them laying down on the couch. Immediately, your hackles are raised. Your blood pressure starts to rise, and you start saying to yourself, "How inconsiderate. They can't even be bothered to help clean up this house we both live in." The anxiety you feel around your intimate partnership is brought to the forefront. If you used the "two truths" technique, it could look something like this:

You might say to yourself instead, "Whew. I'm feeling anxious and irritable. What two things could be true right now? I feel like my partner has been working a lot and they saw the mess and needed a break, and I feel overwhelmed by the messy house. Both things can be true at the same time."

If you led your subsequent discussion with your partner with the two truths mindset, you'd be inclined to open up the conversation around chores more gently and both of you would feel validated and secure in the interaction, thus increasing cooperation in your partnership overall. If you lead with the initial reaction you had, you might pop off and lose your shit. Then the discussion dissolves into conflict and the dishes don't get done. You feel more anxious overall, and worry about the state of your relationship.

Two truths can be used when you find yourself utilizing harsh self-talk in regards to your anxiety symptoms. Many clients don't even realize how 'mean' they are to themselves within their own inner landscape. If they feel anxious, they tell themselves things like, "You're fine. Quit overreacting. You are such a loser. You're a bad parent, partner or friend. You don't deserve good things because you are a failure." So on, and so forth. If you used the two truths method, you might say something like:

"Man, it's been a really hard week. I've really struggled with my anxiety, and I'm still a good parent."

"I feel overwhelmed and I can still do one thing today to lessen my worries tomorrow."

"Sometimes I lose my shit, and I am still a good partner."

"I feel worried and I am going to try again anyways."

This use of two truths can allow you to find compassion and accountability at the same time. Anxiety thrives when we beat ourselves up and then do nothing to challenge the problems that create the feelings of worry and overwhelm in our lives in the first place. You can use the idea of multiplicity in your personal and professional relationships, as well as your relationship with yourself, to create space between validating your experience and pushing towards newer and better ways of thinking.

Let me know in the comments below what your thoughts or questions on the 'two truths' technique are! I'd love to connect further. If you are interested in going deeper with this technique or others like it, please give me a call/text to 405-215-9354, or reach out at info@giftofgritcounseling.com.

Anxiety Busters: A News Diet

Hi friends! Today, I thought we would start a series of blog posts about each of the presenting issues I specialize in within my practice. Sometimes therapy isn't immediately accessible for people, due to time constraints or budget limitations. I still want some of my most trusted tips and tricks to be available to anyone who needs them. Hence the 'Anxiety Busters' series. Like the name? My husband is part of a Ghostbusters charity organization, and was the inspiration for the title! "Who you gonna call?" (Hopefully me, if you need the extra support that counseling can provide!)

First up on the stand, an anxiety buster tip that the media won't like: adopting a news diet! What is a news diet, you ask? It's simply taking a break from the 24 hour news cycle and resting. For example, when I find myself feeling worried about current events, I delete the news app off of my phone, turn off the TV and pause notifications from social media apps. Your brain wasn't designed to handle the constant updates about the world at large. Imagine: 150 years ago, you would have read your daily newspaper and that would have been the extent of your world events updates for the whole day. Science shows us that news and social media sources prey on our most base desires for survival and excitement (see this article here for more information). From the color on the headlines, usually red, to the dramatized titles, news sources know you're more likely to get sucked in because your brain is scanning for danger.

Here's the thing: the anxious brain doesn't need extra help scanning for danger. It's already really adept at finding the worst case scenario! By adopting a news diet, you're giving your brain a chance to rest. And rest is vital to producing a sense of calm and control in your everyday life.

"But, how will I know everything is okay in the

world?", you ask. My answer to that is this: look outside your window at the horizon. Do you see a mushroom cloud of radioactive dust headed your way? No? Then, really, truly everything is okay enough for the time being. Your watching the news or scrolling endlessly through articles won't change anything about current events anyways.

Give the news diet a try for just one week. Tell me how it makes you feel in the comments below. I'd love to connect if this tip resonated with you. If you're looking for a therapist who provides real and accessible measures to change your thinking and your life, give me a call or send me an email.