There’s nothing worse than anxiety. 5 ways to cope
There’s nothing worse than anxiety. Or wait. Going to work and absolutely hating it, is the actual worst thing in the world. The rest is manageable.
So is anxiety. It sucks though.
You know the feeling when you’re trying to fall asleep and remember that email you forgot to send? Or when you’re reading a book and can’t concentrate because your mind keeps running back to work? These are signs of anxiety. It’s not yet the real deal, but it’s not great to feel this way either.
I never experienced anxiety the way you see it in films. I didn’t have difficulty breathing nor had I panicked to a point where I needed medical health.
It was slow. First, I kept getting up really early in the morning. For some time I still tried meditating, doing yoga, or reading - my usual morning routine. Soon I stopped.
10 minutes of meditation became unbearable. “I don’t need it now”. “I’m wasting my energy when I could be doing that task I’m thinking about”. My mind is totally unreliable. It wasn’t telling what I actually needed to hear: “Dude, if you’re struggling to meditate, then it’s exactly what you should be doing. Everything else will wait”.
Every morning I started working immediately after getting out of bed and continued until late at night. I’m a workaholic. I know I am. I’m prone to bad habits and working too much is my favorite one.
The issue of my anxiety was taking on too much work too fast. And according to my therapist, it is a sign of not respecting yourself enough.When agreeing to new things, I was sacrificing free evenings and even little life joys like coffee dates and lovemaking. It’s hard to enjoy sex when all you can think about is work.
So one day, I had a breakdown. I cried. I wanted to give up. Finding a job seemed such a sweet thing to do. I work for myself and even if it doesn’t seem so, it can be really daunting. So we moved to the seaside. We live near the forest and I get to do my 10 000 steps every day walking my dog on the beach.
You don’t have to give up city life, though. Here are a few things I’ve learnt about tackling anxiety:
Ask WHY? When we feel really bad, we concentrate on how to ease it: an evening of rest, face mask, a massage or even a long weekend are usually on the list. However, on Monday you’ll get back to work and also to the same mental state. Understanding the WHY will empower you to make changes. It will cost less too.
5 am club is bullshit. Sleep. I know the world tells you it’s not trendy, I know “successful people” are doing all sorts of fasting rituals and get up at crazy hours. Extreme routines are sexy and get a lot of reach on social media, but they are hard to sustain. Eat & Sleep.
I used to miss out on lunch just because when planning my week, I didn’t leave time for a proper break. Or a break, for that matter. One meeting followed another and the next thing I knew I’d eat late in the evening and fall into a food coma/brain fog type of a situation. Most probably my blood sugars were going bazooka. This leads to illnesses. And if you don’t stop now, it will make you stop later.
Plan your time with kindness. Now, when I plan my week, I think about things like: this meeting is too early - I won’t get 8 hours of sleep; this job pays too little and will actually take a lot of effort; this opportunity sounds cool, but if I take it, I’ll have to miss my fitness class. I see my personal life as big of a priority as any emergency work thing. We only live once, so having a nice time is an emergency too.
Finally, respect every task. Writing an email takes time. Packing up orders takes time. Doing invoices takes time. All the small things that we take for granted take a lot of time. And when they add up, if you didn’t fracture them in, you’ll be left feeling like a failure. Do you catch yourself thinking: I’ve done so much, I really kept myself busy, yet at the end of the day I didn't achieve much. So yes, do respect every task, but also have priorities. Not five. One a day is enough. It’s usually the scary thing on the to-do list and the one you keep pushing away for later, so the best thing you can do is tackle it once you sit down at your desk and enjoy the rest of your day feeling like a million dollars.
I hate cheesy sayings. But Rome wasn’t built in a day. I have a tattoo on my left hand saying “one step at a time”. I know there are a lot of lists out there on google how to be less anxious and more productive. And I know my list won’t make you work harder. But in the long term, it helped me feel more human. I do enjoy my work a lot more too.
P.s. I have become a lot more successful. And I blame it on this list.
Written by Rasa Jusionytė.
