ways to let anxiety go

if you will it, it will happen.

i wrote about morning anxiety in my last post. you can read it here. i had a long-term relationship with morning anxiety before i finally decided to stop letting it whip me around like an agile torero up on a raging bull. it wasn’t fair to my boyfriend and to our growing kids. letting anxiety rule over me felt like i was allowing my relationship with my family to wilt away while i willingly ingested the rubbish that anxiety was feeding me.

our earthly experiences have brought us gifts like happiness (too much or too little of it), fear (rational or not), sadness, anger (controlled or otherwise), disgust, anticipation, and some others that we sometimes claim we can’t name. these emotions have molded us into unique human beings—too unique sometimes that we end up not knowing our own selves.

i call fear, disgust, etc. “gifts” because without them, we’d be nothing but a blank canvass. 

if there is one thing that we are not designed to do is be that masochist gargantuan bowl that guzzles anything that comes our way. emotions will come the way bills do so it's clear that there’s no running away from it. since we can’t choose what life throws at us all the time, we need to find ways to anchor our ships when storms come. 

morning anxiety was one of the persistent storms in my life until i realized that there could be some way to ease my way out of it. better yet, turn my back away from it—completely.

helping yourself cope with morning anxiety will be far from a walk in the park, and will more be like being on a segway and not knowing what on earth you're doing. you’ll get better in time. it won’t work like magic, and it will challenge your will power.

as promised in my article “suffering from morning anxiety but don’t know why?”, none of these things will lead you to the doorsteps of a drug store, nor will i take you to a landing page where i can collect a fee so you could get “the tips”. like most of you, i’ve also fallen for marketing platforms by “creative” experts who give great advices—then ask for a fee. good thing i could never afford to pay for advice.

here are ways to help you cope with morning anxiety:

  hydrate. sounds like a silly advice on coping with anxiety, but well documented researches say that stress hormones called cortisol increase in level when you are dehydrated. sipping up will allow your body to function properly and keep it from getting stressed. i started feeling better in general when i started drinking more than a liter of water a day. but hey, whatever works for you, okay? just make sure you're hydrated.

     
  go easy on the joe. this is not entirely good news to coffee connoisseurs, but staying away from it will give you your much needed forty winks at night. a restful sleep will give your body a chance to recharge properly. water revs up the body better and faster than caffeine. it also does not cause a slump in your energy later in the day. if like me you can’t totally give coffee up, try your best to avoid the joe after 3 pm. 

     
  keep a journal. writing is still one of the most powerful tools in clearing up your mind. before you hit the sack at night, write down things that worry you and read it out loud. you’d be surprised at how less bothersome things could be if you put a voice to it. i keep a notebook where i write down short term goals, things i could get panicky about like budget and things “i think i might forget” and activities that i want to do. when i wake up in a panic attack feeling i’ve forgotten something, i go and check my notebook. it always eases me up.

   
  talk to yourself. make counter arguments with your own thoughts especially the long list of “what ifs” that time and again you’ve proven to be baseless and useless. remind yourself to stick to what is realistic, and if something you think is beyond your control (the airplane crashing, you losing a job because of a bad boss) then it’s beyond your control. period.  there is no use  fussing over it. i use the word “fine!” as an expletive and i always feel better after i say it out loud. 

     
     
  say “it is a great morning!” and believe it. when you wake up palpitating or in a panic attack and you don’t know why, accept this blissful ignorance. then tell yourself that if you can’t find the reason for you to stay in a panic mode then it’s useless staying all worked up for nothing.

 

kiss the sun. negative thoughts bind you in bed and that’s all the more reason why you have to push yourself out of bed and get out. sticking your head out the window where there’s sunshine helps a lot, if stepping out is too much. natural antidepressants in the brain called serotonin increase level in sunlight. good levels of serotonin will also give you a good night’s sleep.we get enough sunshine in the house, so i'm one lucky flower, but i still go out to get more of it.

                                                                                                                                  

 
  
  talk to a friend and make sure it’s the one who won’t hold your hand and overanalyze things with you. you will be sliding down a 45 degree slope with that one. we all have friends who always make us feel better in a truthful, sincere, honest way. call that one.

    
  tap your creative self. we’re not talking about creating exhibit-worthy artwork here. find ways to create something that will make you feel good. i like to pick up the paintbrush with my kids or other art materials sometimes. art is therapeutic and does wonders in ways you can’t explain.

    
    pamper yourself. if you live in the philippines, you’re lucky. the choices of spas with quality yet affordable services are aplenty. i’m pretty sure there’s one right around the corner from your home. if you hate massages (believe me, people like that are not fictional characters), there are other ways to be pampered. getting a good haircut is another simple way to refresh a weary soul. 


 
  
  go walking. it’s not only one of the most effective and safest exercises, it is also   beneficial in a number of ways. it’s calming and keeps your mind off negative thoughts as you engage your senses to what’s around you. 

  
  get quality sleep. it clears the mind, rejuvenates the body and does all the most wonderful things for your health.

     
     i’ve been free from the claws of morning anxiety for a little over a year now. i know you’ll get through this journey, too, if you grab it in the face, look it in the eye then wilfully throw it behind you. 

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suffering from morning anxiety but you don’t know why?

did you wake up bursting with positive energy today? if not, it’s okay. we all have days when we wake up to that familiar feeling of sadness or panic or anxiety. oftentimes you can’t put a finger on it — it just feels like this thick shadow draping over you, blocking the bright rays of the sun. 

for some it’s temporary, yet for some it’s a lifelong affair with anxiety.

i have struggled with morning anxiety for years. i knew what anxiety was, i just did not understand why it would particularly happen to me in the mornings. conquering morning anxiety was a personal project of mine for years to no end. when you look around there is a myriad of articles on anxiety. my reason for writing this is not to offer an expert opinion, which i don’t claim to have, but to take you on a short walk with me, lest you’ve been experiencing it, too. 

it took years before i finally decided to do serous research on this persistent foe. i was surprised with my discovery that there indeed is such a thing as “morning anxiety” and that millions of people suffer from it (i honestly thought i gave this kind of anxiety a name, silly me.) 

general anxiety causes lack of sleep, restlessness, loss of appetite and the lack of motivation. the sum of all these would end up in overall fatigue. if you’ve been worried about your job, money or relationship and you feel like you’ve downed eight straight shots of espresso and can’t control the jitters, you will surely be struggling under an invisible anvil the day after. the body can only take so much.

what is morning anxiety like? here’s an excerpt from a story where the central character, belinda, describes what she feels so we can somehow put a face to this bothersome feeling.

as soon as i opened my eyes i noticed the thin long cracks on my ceiling. they weren’t there yesterday. or maybe i just didn’t see them. 

“is today a monday? a thursday? days are strangers to me now. why is my heart thumping...it’s thumping and i’m so scared. how am i going to survive the next few days? questions, questions. my head is full of them now. do i have enough money? no, no, no. i never have enough. payday’s two weeks from now. the thought makes me want to jump out of bed and start working. maybe i’ll earn more money and i’ll never have to worry about it.”

i want to get up and do something but my body feels very heavy. I am very worried and i don’t know if anything will ever make things better. am i the only one feeling this way?”

sometimes, morning anxiety borders on the feeling of a panic attack and paranoia. you feel fearful and jittery. it is, however, a complex emotion to describe especially when you feel like you’re going through a tunnel where, sadly, the light on the other end scares you.

 here are some symptoms of morning anxiety. the moment you wake up you...

•  feel nervous, terrified even if you do not know the specific reason
• feel weak, tired, dizzy
• feel out of control
• have pains in your chest 
•  are confused
•  have stomach upset — this used to hit me the most
•  have muscle tension

overcoming morning anxiety is a process, and hopefully not a long one for you. besides life events that worry you, there may be things that you do everyday that add up to your anxiety. i didn’t know they mattered, that’s why i want to share them with you because in the world of anxiety, these are juggernauts:

 

•  sleeping on a bed that’s not comfortable will not give you a complete rest. the overall mood and feel of your room have a lot to do with your first emotions when you wake up. after all, it’s the first thing that you see in the morning. studies have also shown that when you wake up to an alarm, you subject yourself to a “surprise”  or scare and that’s not the best way to start your day.
•  low blood sugar triggers the fight or flight response, according to deanne repich, the founder of the national institute of anxiety and stress, inc. maintaining the right level of sugar will help your body to stay calm as the brain feeds on it. the right level of sugar will also prevent cortisol from waking up and reproducing itself
• speaking of cortisol, it is a stress hormone. it is naturally highest in the morning and at night. if you go to bed stressed out you will be producing more of it and panic is sure to hit you first thing when you wake up
• minor unresolved problems. hey, never underestimate the power of “small”. resolve problems before you hit the sack tonight
• consumption of alcohol -- you might want to go easy on this because the feeling of relaxation it gives you will completely reverse a few hours later or, for sure, the morning after

my next post will be on ways to deal with morning anxiety. i will also share how i personally conquered it in the simplest, most doable ways possible. no drugs and money involved, i promise.

keep reading and don’t forget to share!

stress anxiety panic attack fatigue stress at work fear paranoia paranoid low self-esteem depression sadness psycho therapy