Anxiety and POSITIVE CHOICES Community Group
Learn the skills to conquer overwhelming anxiety from physical to emotional coping. We can choose how we feel and think, you just have to be willing to make those changes and commit to them.
I thought that it would be a good idea to share your Top 10 Things that have helped you get better.
This group is a place to share what works. Something you share might be just the thing that helps the next person get one step closer to their goal.
1) Writing in a "Success & Worry" journal daily; and watching my "Successes" slowly outweigh the my "Worries".
2) Learning to live in the NOW
3) Learning to mentally see a "STOP" sign in my head whenever I start to obsess, ruminate, make up wild stories, or when I am thinking about past conversations.
4) Getting good quality sleep. Getting myself on a sleep schedule; making sure there's no light coming in my bedroom (even nightlights), drinking a warm glass of milk and honey 2 hours before bedtime AND turning the clock away so I cannot see it and only using the alarm if I need to get up.
5)Daily Vitamin and Mineral regime: Multi Vitamin and Minerals, Calcium w/Magnesium and Zinc, an extra Magnesium and Vitamin D, 2,000mg Flax seed, and osteo bi-flex (chondroitin/glucosamine).
6) Walk and hour as many days as possible
7) Getting my face in the sun as early as possible in the morning; sit in a sunny window; eat breakfast outside when weather permits.
8) Start the day off with real oatmeal, eggs, and orange juice
9) Relaxation tapes at least 1-2 days a week
10) Listen to body signs when I am with people and learn from what my body reactions are trying to tell me. Learn and practive more assertiveness ( remembering the difference between assertiveness and aggressiveness. Resisting resistance! When I am with know-it-alls I try not to be one, too. Let them think they have just taught me something. If someone has to win a conversation then that makes us adversaries rather than friends.
I am eager to hear what has worked for you, too. I hope all of us learn from each other.
Betsy
This group is a place to share what works. Something you share might be just the thing that helps the next person get one step closer to their goal.
1) Writing in a "Success & Worry" journal daily; and watching my "Successes" slowly outweigh the my "Worries".
2) Learning to live in the NOW
3) Learning to mentally see a "STOP" sign in my head whenever I start to obsess, ruminate, make up wild stories, or when I am thinking about past conversations.
4) Getting good quality sleep. Getting myself on a sleep schedule; making sure there's no light coming in my bedroom (even nightlights), drinking a warm glass of milk and honey 2 hours before bedtime AND turning the clock away so I cannot see it and only using the alarm if I need to get up.
5)Daily Vitamin and Mineral regime: Multi Vitamin and Minerals, Calcium w/Magnesium and Zinc, an extra Magnesium and Vitamin D, 2,000mg Flax seed, and osteo bi-flex (chondroitin/glucosamine).
6) Walk and hour as many days as possible
7) Getting my face in the sun as early as possible in the morning; sit in a sunny window; eat breakfast outside when weather permits.
8) Start the day off with real oatmeal, eggs, and orange juice
9) Relaxation tapes at least 1-2 days a week
10) Listen to body signs when I am with people and learn from what my body reactions are trying to tell me. Learn and practive more assertiveness ( remembering the difference between assertiveness and aggressiveness. Resisting resistance! When I am with know-it-alls I try not to be one, too. Let them think they have just taught me something. If someone has to win a conversation then that makes us adversaries rather than friends.
I am eager to hear what has worked for you, too. I hope all of us learn from each other.
Betsy
For Me:
1. Self-Hypnosis was a life saver and it's possibilities are endless.
2. Daily exercise. (I've recently hicked it up to an hour a day with a great DVD that does a whole body workout. I have to improvise with it.. but I love it.)
3. Eating healthy!! No fast food. No processed food. I make what I eat from scratch and I pay attention to a well balanced diet.
4. Doing my homework.. whether it be given to me in a therapy session or homework that I have assigned to myself. Not just 'thinking' about it. DOING it. Honestly and faithfully.
5. Keeping a positive attitude!!
6. Riding my life of negative people who continually pull you down.
7. Doing 3 things for someone else.. anyone else.. every day.. looking outside my bubble and making someone else feel good.
8. Supplementing my diet with Vitamins and minerals... Calcium/Magnesium with Vit D., Vit C, CoQ10, flax seed, flax seed oil, hemp seeds, Omega 3's, ; making sure my diet includes natural fibre;
9. Getting proper rest. Eating when I wake.. (I am not a breakfast person) so even if I have to force in a few bites of Red River Cereal .. something whole grain and good for you... would love it to be eggs every morning Betsy.. but I'm also on a weight loss kick... I 'love' eggs benedict... oh YUM!!!
10. Listen to my intuition, Listen to the voice in the back of my head, go with my gut instincts, Smile till your cheecks hurt!!!!! Be a person who helps others... but don't be taken advantage of.....
okay.. that's 10 .. just off the top.. i prob missed something major.. lol.. like be 'kind' to yourself... take some 'you' time!!!
Can't wait to hear everyone else's.
XOX
Love Julia :)
In no special order:
1. Eating small meals every 2-3 hours so I have an even flow of energy.
2. Taking 15 mg of Celexa daily
3. Daily vitamin plus suppliments of mag. w/calcium, Vit B, E, & D., and omega 3.
4. Exercise
5. Being creative for at least an hour/day.
6. Reading in my book "Battlefields of the Mind"
7. Working on "Panic Away" program
8. Acceptance of the sensations I have as not harmful, only weird.
9. Being positive
10. Living in the moment
11. Breathing through my nose and down into my stomach instead of using the chest and mouth.
12. Telling a negative thought to be gone.
13. Daily exposure therapy
14. Visualization of new places before I go.
15. Relaxation tools
16. When all else fails, take 1/2 of a Xanex - LOL
I know this is more 10, but these are my daily tools that have helped me progress from not leaving the house to driving & even grocery shopping. WaHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I use Visualization tooo.. it is an amazing tool!!!!
Thanks Betsy :)
1. the support of my boyfriend (this actually is #1)
2.meditation
3. learning about anxiety and how i am not alone
4. letting go of "failures"
5. cherishing successes
6. not resisting and just going with the flow
7. exposure therapy (i am doing it myself. no doctors or meds for me)
8. exercise
9. books
10. supplements! my sensoril is working sooo well for me that i feel like i will finally be cured soon! thank God!
today i did a bit of self-imposed exposure therapy! my boyfriend had to drive an hour to Massachusetts to help his grandfather and then go out to lunch. his mom was meeting him there and then he was going to visit his grandma. he wasn't sure when all these plans were gonna happen and if unexpected trips would be taken and i i told him i wasn't going (he asked me to go last night). he said he understood. then i started feeling bad about my anxiety and wondered when i would be able to be carefree again. so he woke up at 8 and woke me up and asked if i was going. i said no. then i was laying there in bed and thought of how the day would be if i stayed at home( lonely, boring, depressing...) then i was thinking about how his mom always takes side trips and might want us to go to her friends' houses or something and that i didn't know how long this would take and if his grandma would want us to go to dinner, etc. so i was like i am def. not going. then decided to get up and get ready. i started thinking "what's the worst that could happen?" by the time i was done i had decided to go. so we left at 9 and got to newburyport at 10 and did all kinds of stuff. i started getting anxious around 7:30. jeremy had to drop his grandpa off and left me with his grandmother and her great aunt. she is leaving with her great aunt right now b/c azel is dying and needs help b/c her leg was amputated. i told jeremy i would be fine being there while he was gone. but azel started getting panicky b/c her leg was hurting and was almost crying about taking her pills and i started feeling lightheaded and nauseous. i felt like i might throw up but i just talked to them through it and ignored it. then jeremy came back and i felt great again. i wish that hadn't happened but i really went out on a limb and succeeded. woo hoo! this is great for my confidence. i was went for 12 1/2 hours today. i didn't feel even a little nervous after we left except when azel was panicky. but that's ok. woo hoo!
I bet you feel good tomorrow, also. I usually feel good the day after a success.
Betsy
One key thing I should have listed as #1 on my list is prayer. I pray before I try and while I"m driving. I also read almost daily in my "Battlefields of the Mind" book by Joyce Meyer. This book has helped me a lot.
Making dr appointments even though it's tough.
Going to bed half hour b/4 i usually fall asleep..to calm my mind
Ridding people and things that are negative. ie:
Making note of my resentments and trying to let them go.
Getting outside for a walk or drive even if it's a half hour.
Meditation/Relaxation 3 times a week.
"Remind myself" CALM DOWN! LOL..I don't have to do it all, and i must calm my negative thinking.
Taking my Omega 3's, B-Complex, Calcium/Magnesium each day.
Walking away from the news. To much goin on there.
Also trying not to project about my son or future.
"Listening to my body.
Ridding of my feelings of guilt.
Was that 10? lol
I agree about the news! It's frustrating to me that it isn't news anymore. It's opinions---and depending on the channel can be very biased.
I like to hear good news and happy news.
Betsy
Snoozie and Betsy, I didn't watch any news for 4 years.. I couldn't.. but then I had to as a part of my 'homework' and I had to analyze what I watched.. how it affected me? Rate how I felt... etc.. etc.. It took a long while.. but I 'can' watch it now. I still choose not to most of the time.. but it's by choice not because I feel I 'can't'.
Love this thread :) :)
Betsy