I'm staying in this Saturday night hanging out with the fam-bam, and you Steemit!
This had been a tough week at work. And in more than one occasion I woke up feeling uneasy. For a few months now whenever that uneasy, anxious feeling in the stomach arises, I'd go through this exercise in my head or aloud to ground myself and to remember who and where I am.
1. Remind yourself what today is. 'Today is Saturday.'
2. Remind yourself what yesterday was. 'Yesterday was Friday.'
3. Remind yourself what tomorrow is. 'Tomorrow is Sunday.'
4. Give yourself a few facts or reminders about these few days - structured, concrete, rational thoughts. 'Friday was payday.' 'Monday comes after Sunday. Client meeting is on Wednesday. You have two full days to prepare.'
5. Always end with 'You got this. You've done this. You can do this.'
6. Repeat. You'd feel better and more in control of your surroundings.
My boyfriend had thought I was off my rocker when I first started repeating the days of the week out loud. Then I came across a post illustrating similar process. This anxiety management technique is called Grounding. By replacing negative, irrational thoughts with concrete rational ones creates a diversion and deescalates your anxiety symptoms.
Of course there are numerous techniques online that can help ground you when you feel like you have lost all control. One of my favorite is when you sense a panic attack coming on, look around you. What do you see? What can you touch? What can you smell? What can you taste? These things will bring you back to ground.
Now the next time you go through an existential crisis, try this. It can help!
Ok..selfie time. Sorry for the grainy pic. Not a lot of light in here.
Thank you for sharing your grounding idea, that was excellent! Another technique I've used when I'm feeling anxious is to instead consider my anxiety to be excitement--this works because physical anxiety and excitement have similar manifestations in your body (faster heart rate, cortisol surging, etc). Since you're already pumped up, look at the possibilities of the situation (excitement) instead of focusing on the negatives (anxiety). I find it easier to tell myself to 'get excited' when I'm anxious than to try to 'calm down', give it a try and see what you think. I'll definitely add this grounding tip to my arsenal too--thanks again!
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