Coping with anxiety in a world that is full of surprises

The number of individuals who suffer from anxiety seems to have skyrocketed in the past several years. Individuals often ask themselves, is this all triggered by the pandemic? Is this all a result of social media and being isolated for over a year? Has quarantine increased anxiety amongst teens and adults due to feeling alone for so long and being unable to predict what will happen next for them? If you are reading this and suffer from anxiety you may align with this thought pattern, the spiral.

The truth behind this is it could be several factors and different factors for each individual that has worsened or caused their anxiety. The fear of the unknown, that constant thought of, "well what if ....." that we can't seem to turn off. In a world where there are plenty of knowns, there are also unknowns ( we tend to focus on this). The automatic thoughts we may experience when a certain situation happens, the lens we view the world and interactions around us. This is due to events that have happened to us personally or to ones we love. Accessing the core belief as to why one views the world and the interactions they have the way they do can take months to years. How many of us live our lives on that auto-pilot setting? Every day is the same, we wake up, make our coffee, go to work, hustle all day, some days take a lunch break and some days we don't see the light of day, come home, eat dinner, play on our phones and then off to bed. I would imagine this routine can become reality quite quickly. This is where mindfulness and passion come into play.

Mindfulness: "I don't have time to sit and be mindful of what I am doing, I have a to-do list a mile long today", what would it look like to prioritize yourself and your needs? How would it feel to pay attention to your thoughts, feelings and bodily sensations without judgment? Easier said than done, I know. Letting go of negative thoughts instead of allowing them to feed your depression and anxiety. Learning to not engage in the automatic thought patterns that continue the cycles of anxiety and depression. Unsure how to even begin this practice? Below are a few ways to start and try, but working with your therapist on finding which techniques are effective for you can be extremely beneficial.

Meditation: start with guided and then progress to self-guided meditation practices once you have been doing this for several months

Body Scan: this can look like progressive muscle relaxation ( guided recommended to start) or this can look like simply lying down and bringing awareness to your body- starting with your toes working your way up to your head

Single tasking: how many tabs do you have open on your computer during the work day? How many different things are you trying to accomplish at once at a given time? Lets slow down. Try to close all tabs except one, begin a project and find the project prior to starting something else. Focus on one task at hand for 24 hours, how did it go?

There are plenty of mindfulness exercises and finding what works best for you is the most important piece to the practice. Anxiety is rooted in the unknown of the future, if we are able to focus on the present without judgement, we can cope with the negative automatic thoughts that come into our mind resulting in our anxious feeling.

How long will it take for you to begin to notice that the stress of your daily life is giving you anxiety and you are having difficulty sleeping?

Thinking about the possibility of a bad day that may be caused by a stressful situation, or the possibility of a bad day coming on in your life at any time, is an important part of mindfulness. Just being aware of each moment as it comes and what is happening in your mind tells us when we need to stop and rest or go back to doing something else.

What are some common thoughts and feelings that come into your head during the work day?