Sad spells? Anxiety Attacks? Panic Paralysis? Here’s 5 Anxiety Management Techniques I Do When I’m Blindsided by Anxiety, Sadness, and Grief
No one gave you a manual on how to navigate this COVID-19 era. Sometimes my fears and anxieties blindside me out of nowhere, and here’s a couple techniques I do to move through my panic paralysis moments.
How can you keep going when you're sad as sh!t, for no reason?
Sad spells? Anxiety Triggers? Panic Paralysis? Here’s 5 Things I Do To Manage My Anxiety When I’m Blindsided by Anxiety, Sadness, and Grief
I just went and knocked out my favorite weight lifting class. I was pumped in classes, came home, and then for absolutely no particular reason, I'm hit with a wave of sadness. A part of me just wants to cry, and it makes absolutely zero sense.
Maybe it's the new hormone therapy, perhaps it's the solar system, maybe it's a part of my subconscious limiting beliefs surfacing. Whatever my reason, here I am.
Planning on diving into my productive Monday morning work day, and I feel off, I feel confused and disoriented and I don’t know what the F is going on and why or what I’m even feeling. I am no stranger to anxiety attacks and panic attacks, and I think for a lot of creative entrepreneurs and business owners it’s a constant dance with mental and emotional health and building something bigger than yourself.
Now more than ever are so many of us struggling to manage our emotional health, stay calm, and continue moving steadily through this era of COVID-19, protests, and so much upheaval and uncertainty in the world we live in today.
If you ever get caught off guard by sadness surfacing like I do (I have both hands raised over here), here's what works for me to manage my sad-spells and anxiety attacks.
Ways To Reduce My Anxiety: Slow Down
I immediately caught myself dropping down, and then coming into this more vulnerable, reactive emotional state. I'm more prone to projecting onto my partner if I don't catch some awareness around what's happening. So I chose to go into my side room, and I sat down on the floor. Which leads me to my next thought:
How To Calm Anxiety And Fear: Grounding
When you're blindsided by sadness, sit down, lie down on the floor, ground. They say it's powerful to touch the earth without shoes/socks on, I've also heard touching a natural element. For now, the hardwood floor with a rug on it works for me.
How To Stop Feeling Anxious Right Now: Listen To A Guided Meditation.
Sarah Blondin is a guided meditation teacher I've found so much solace in her guided meditations. She's on Insight Timer, as well as on iTunes, her Podcast platform is called "Live Awake" - where it's a series of free guided meditations. It's amazing, it's beautiful, I am held by her teachings every time. I slowed down, grounded, and listened to her, "I wish someone would have told me," meditation today.
When You’re Trying To Manage Your Anxiety: Write It Out
When I slow down to put pen to paper, or my fingers to a keyboard, I'm able to slow my thoughts and emotions down and start to funnel and channel my emotion or feeling in a functional outlet. I use https://www.750words.com -- it's a simple donation-based online, private, journaling platform that's become a refuge for me to purge and work through my grief, my fear, my passion. It even has fun monthly challenges, and an algorithm after you hit 750 words, the website analyzes what you wrote that day, and you can see some cool pie charts and breakdowns of the metrics about what was on your heart while you were writing. I'll include mine from this article so you can see it. The website's platform is around clearing 750 words as a daily habit of expression.
How To Calm Your Mind From Anxiety: Channel And Explore Your Sadness Through Music
I almost always have a song at any given moment in my mind that can connect to how I feel. Right now, David Guetta's "What I Did For Love" (feat. Emeli Sandé) is what I'm playing over and over on repeat as I write this.
“For me, I pick one song and play it over and over, like a mantra, a point of energetic concentration to express and explore what’s happening in my chest and mind. ”
Here’s a playlist I built years ago for times I’ve grieved in my life “The Only Way Out Is Through: A Playlist For Grief”— feel free to use this as a starting point to find your musical exploration of your emotions:
How To Snap Out Of Your Anxiety Cycle: Free-Write From Your Sadness And See What Comes To The Surface
Freewriting is the exercise of writing continuously, in a nonjudgmental, unfiltered way to in essence do a brain and emotional purge. So you put pen to paper, or fingers to your keyboard, and you go to town. Write out every thought that’s popping into your head, exactly the way you think it. Don’t correct anything, just let it stand. Do this for 3 minutes. 10 minutes. Set a timer, and just write, write, write. Allow me to demonstrate as I’m in the middle of my sadness, but I can’t quite put a finger on a “why” for these feelings:
At this moment, I don't have clarity around what triggered this feeling. But I'm going to free-write and see what comes up. I gave my 100% in weightlifting class, I ran, and then I did a core class. The music was awesome, I felt amazing in the moment, I gave 110% in the core series, and I'm really proud of that. Coming home, I started thinking about an upcoming phone call with a colleague I'm really impressed by, and I have some anxious energy and excitement about connecting with her. Maybe I tail-spinned thinking about what the economic and energetic climate of society right now, and got into my fear around if I can pivot and bloom, and I'm in a vein of uncertainty and fear about if I have what it takes to make it during this time. [my tears start welling up] Maybe I'm just sad and disheartened that so many people are having a hard time right now, emotionally, financially, in their businesses. Maybe I'm bummed we didn't get to do our Britney and Justin: A Love Affair dance performance. Maybe I'm sad seeing my favorite businesses struggle, and some of my friends close their businesses. Maybe I'm scared about this time in life, and I'm scared of all the uncertainty in life right now. Maybe I feel like a failure because I'm not where I thought I would be before COVID happened. Maybe I think I'm not cool enough, not important enough, and I'm just wasting my time trying to do great things. Maybe I should hole up and shut down from the world. But then I think about Emily Oswald, and I think about my friends who show up each week and live stream and workout with me. I think about all the women I love that surround me, and I quickly remember, I'm okay. If Emily can show up each week and be a big beacon of light, so can I. If Jenny Broe can put a video up promoting dance classes, mask-or-shine, I can do it. I can show up.
...Coming out of that paragraph, I feel a little more lifted. I have a little more understanding of my sadness, and reading those freewriting thoughts, it makes sense that I'd have some waves of those emotions, and those thoughts. It makes sense that I'm scared right now. It makes sense I'm uncomfortable.
And that’s how you do it — just venting that emotional pressure can work wonders for your mind and heart to calm your anxiety and find more ease in your heart and mind.
Sneaky Signs You're Sad / In A State Of Avoidance
I don’t know about you, but for me, sometimes I have no freakin’ clue I’m sad, or I’m anxious. I’m just in it, and I’m on autopilot, and then I find myself asking, “Omgosh what the heck am I doing, how did I get here?”
Here are sneaky behaviors I catch myself doing when I'm attempting to zone out and avoid my anxiety or emotions:
-I get into a social media black hole. I tailspin. I don't mean I'm triggering off people in my profile, I removed all of the comparison-trap influencers that I used to beat myself up when I'd see them, but I tailspin into this continuous scroll, comment, scroll, comment, message, switch account, scroll, comment, scroll comment.
“Productive” Actions Without Any Real Focus
It's this little rhythm of "productivity" without any particular focus, which isn't really productivity at all. It's just me mindlessly taking up 15 minutes...30 minutes getting lost in an unproductive rabbit hole on Instagram. So if you can relate, if you find yourself tail spinning into social media, try shoving your phone in the couch across the room, and see if you can slow down. Or pop open a guided meditation app (I love Insight Timer) and ground and see if you can settle into yourself.
How To Manage And Avoid Panic Paralysis At The Beginning Of The Work Week Or Weekend
Reflecting back on this morning, it's Monday morning, I didn't have any particular block of focused work established, I don't know about you, but sometimes I get a panic when I don't have clarity in my schedule for my work.
It may seem a little ridiculous, but I have this feelings hit me on Saturday mornings when I don’t have any set plans, and I have this happen on Monday mornings when I shift back into work mode.
When I don’t have clarity on direction (which, it’s the wild-wild-west of COVID-19 and I’ve just been trying to keep it together over here, hello) I find myself inducing analysis paralysis.
Tail Spinning Analysis Paralysis
I find myself thinking on a MACRO level (about the state of the economy, COVID-19, protests, our wedding season coming up, getting our editing workload rolling again, following up with two prospective clients, administrative minutia I need to tend to...) then I spiral out, and I overwhelm myself. So, maybe a "hindsight is 20/20" move would be to set myself with a little more concrete goal for my Monday morning productivity, so I don't trigger an anxiety attack and lose my morning productivity.
If you experience sad spells, ever get blindsided by anxiety, and get a little scared on how to pivot and channel that energy, these are a few of my cards I have up my sleeve that support me when I'm maneuvering triggers, discomforts, or sad spells or anxiety attacks.
I hope one of these tips to reduce anxiety supports you in moving through your emotions or anxiety, and get you back on your feet a little sooner.
If you have any go-to behaviors that really help you dig yourself out of the an anxiety blackhole I would LOVE to hear them!!!
Please comment below and share the wealth of wisdom! And I hope you are able to move through the rest of your day with a little more grace for yourself. Remember, you aren’t alone in your struggles. I see you. No one gave us a manual during these times, and I have no doubt you’re doing a fantastic job.