Selfcare

Anxiety and panic are two absolutely devastating things. I had an anxiety attack that went on for about 15 minutes or so. I could not catch my breath. My mind was simply reeling and I could not seem to collect my thoughts. 

After trying several breathing techniques as well as other methods of calming my breathing down I realized that at the center of the problem was not my lungs it was my brain. I was not able to regulate my brain to think about one thing. Instead i was thinking about all the things that could have ruined my day or was going on with me and the ones i loved.

When finally I was able to breath again I took stock of what had lead to that moment that nearly sent me to the ER. I came to understand that I had neglected myself during a very stressful time in my life and needed to revisit my selfcare practices. This is a focus that I hear a lot from people ranging from friends in retail to those in healthcare.

Reality as things stand is that no matter what you do or who you are you absolutely need to have a method of caring for yourself. I may have fallen short on this but in the end i was also able to recover and reevaluate this problem. 

Now to create a selfcare routine is something I personally cannot cover in one short piece nor can i speak to all of the different ways in which there are to create one. I can only speak as always to my experience and practices that have helped myself and others i know. 

There are two exercises that believe can really help you zero in on the center of your anxiety providing you keep an open mind.

Exercise 1

180 Brain Dump: Set a timer for three minutes. During this 180 seconds write down every single thought that enters your mind. These noted thoughts are going to act as a sort of pulse check for you mindset. 

Based on the results of this pulse check you can adjust your selfcare routine or change it all together. 

Exercise 2

Private Theater: As the name implies this is something best done in a private place. Choose an event, conversation, or a person that you have anxiety about and just start acting it out. Think of the guy in the movies that stands in a mirror and rehearses his interview.

This can help bring out what you are most anxious about or what you really need to focus on.