Managing Anxiety & Depression
Self-Soothing
Anxiety and depression can send the otherwise rational-minded down a rabbit hole of assuming the worst, ruminating, obsessing, and overthinking. Self-soothing is a simple way to help you to feel more in control and grounded when uncomfortable feelings strike. The practice of self-soothing can help you to calm your mind by focusing on your 5 senses. Try the following exercise.
Sight: Look around and identify what you can see. Try identifying everything around you that is a particular color. You can also simply identify things around you that you can see. Name as many things as you can.
Touch: Sit and choose a small object like a stone or leaf and examine what sensations you notice while you hold it. Move the object around in your hands. What does it feel like? Is it cool or warm to the touch? Is it rough in texture or smooth? What else can you notice about the object?
Sound: Turn on some music. What does the music make you think about? What place or memory does it make you think about? What do you like about the music? Go outside and name the sounds you can hear around you. Identify as many sounds as you can.
Smell: Grab some essential oils or some herbal tea. Simply sit with the item you have chosen and focus on the scent for a few minutes. What feelings come to you? What do you think about when you sit with the scent?
Taste: Eat a piece of chocolate or sip your favorite drink. Take your time and really savor it. Really pay attention to the sensations, aromas, and textures.
Hopefully you notice that you immediately feel calmer. This is just one skill that can help you feel better when worry, anxiety, or extreme sadness arise. Maybe this happens more often than you would like? If so, I would love to talk to you about how a trained therapist can help!
Get Out of Your Head with Gratitude
Anxiety can be a vicious beast. Before we get into how to relieve it, it’s important to discuss why anxiety is a helpful emotion. Anxiety can be helpful because it alerts us to potential dangers, lets us know something scares us, or motivates us to do well at things. Without it you wouldn’t feel accomplished after passing an exam, when you overcome something challenging, or succeed at something you worked so hard for (hello promotion!). However, anxiety can also last longer than intended and can cause us to avoid situations that might lead to disappointment or failure. Long-standing anxiety can also lead to overthinking our short-comings and focusing on things that make us miserable. Something that can be helpful is practicing gratitude.
Gratitude can be thought of as a way of identifying things in our lives that make us happy and appreciative. When we are in a state of feeling happy, joyful, and appreciative it is more difficult to feel bad. Simple as that! When I ask my clients to practice gratitude, I as them to begin listing what they are grateful for on two occasions weekly. You can then gradually work up to practicing this skill as often as you like! Below is a sample gratitude list to help you get started:
1) I am so grateful for my healthy functional body, because it allows me to play with my children.
2) I am so grateful for my healthy eyes, because they allow me to see the places and faces that I love.
3) I am so grateful for my job, because it helps me to feel productive and allows me to help others.
Try writing down 10 things you are grateful for on two occasions this week, and continue this practice for a couple of weeks to see how it works for you.
If you would like to talk to me about how to begin therapy to address your anxiety, please fill out my contact form to request a free 15-minute phone consultation!