Stress Management: Taking Care of Your Mind

Hey there, everyone. It's Brendan here again, and I won't lie to you: I am feeling very, very stressed. Anxiety has been bothering me something fierce lately, and I'm trying my best to deal with it, but it's been debilitating. It saddens me a little to think that there are so many others feeling this way, especially these days.

As I've done some research on how best to cope with and manage these feelings, I realized that it could be a good idea to share some of it with you, so that's what I wanted to do today! Even writing this honestly helps me feel a bit better, and that's actually one of the first tips I heard and read about...

Write It Out, Let It Out

Something that's helped me a ton with recent anxiety attacks, and that I've read can be a good strategy for just about anyone is to write out what you're feeling and what's making you anxious. Keeping these things bottled up in your mind can make them feel larger than they actually are, and allow them to amplify the negativity. 

You don't just have to write down what's making you anxious, either. Documenting your potential solutions to the problems you're facing is a great way to help manifest and plan them. I found another blog, from the website Betterup, that goes over some tips on how to use journaling to reduce your stress levels and feel less intimidated by the idea of putting pen to paper. It also has twenty journaling prompts with different ideas to get you started.

Be Aware of the Symptoms of Anxiety and Stress

This may be going backwards a bit, but I think it's absolutely critical. Especially for those of us with anxiety disorders or similar conditions, we can become so used to the feelings and sensations of our anxiety that we don't always identify them. Knowing the major symptoms of anxiety and stress are critical to countering them. Here's a list of some of the most common:

• Feelings of helplessness or hopelessness
• Fidgeting, trembling or other tics
• Elevated heartrate and/or rapid breathing
• Inability to distract yourself/avoid thinking about triggers
• Sweating 
  
• Feeling unable to eat/keep food down, even if hungry
• Feeling of impending doom/worry that the worst will happen or is happening
• The above symptoms interfering with daily life/functionality

This is not an exclusive list by any means, and not all of these will necessarily appear, even if you have a full-blown panic attack. If you feel these symptoms, especially for long periods of time, the best thing that you can do is seek out professional help. Urgent care or the emergency room are absolutely valid places to go, particularly if you're having any feelings or thoughts of self-harm. Personally, I see a therapist every other week and that has almost completely helped me to manage my anxiety and stress. 

Zzz...

This is something that could probably have been just one part of a bullet point list of things, but I really wanted to emphasize it because I know how important it can be. Sleep is something we all know, deep down, that we need to do (and probably do better on, in most cases). It's the first casualty of a busy schedule, the first thing that we sacrifice so we can have just a bit more time for the things we want or need to do. It's also critical to keeping our brains healthy, though, and with a lack of quality sleep, so much can cascade into chaos. 

Your mental health is deeply affected by the quality and duration of your nightly rests. According to Johns Hopkins, sleep deprivation can cause issues with everything from your immune system to your mood regulation; in the latter, it can cause irritability, anger and frustration. There are a lot more effects, especially if sleep is disrupted in the long term, but the gist of it is that you need that rest! 

Accepting The Limits

One of the things that I have had the most trouble with in regards to my own anxiety lately is that there are so many things I want to have control over, but I don't. The world moves in ways that don't always (or even often) make sense, and though it's easy to think of so many solutions for the problems out there, we can't always make them happen. Knowing these limits, and what you can accomplish within them, is an important element of reducing stress. 

Diet and Exercise

Two of the more simple words in the English language, but loaded with so much context and individual circumstance! I know that, unfortunately, not everyone has access to the resources or even the time required to eat the kind of food and do the kind of exercise that we should be every day. There are simple activities that you can add to your routine, though, that will at least partly meet the body's innate needs.

• Go for a walk every day. Whether it's on your lunch break at work, when you get home from classes or just something you do in the evening after dinner, try and get a few blocks under your belt, so to speak. Breathing in that fresh air, even if it is chilly, is one of the best ways to clear your mind.
• Have healthy snacks.I'm not just saying this because I work for Nakee Butter, which is in itself a healthy snack, but cutting out those potato chips will genuinely help you feel better. We often feel down on ourselves when we eat food that we know is bad for us, and this can create a negative feedback loop. Instead, have an apple, some celery or even a pouch of Nakee Butter. Do some research to find the nutrient gaps in your diet and fill them with the right kinds of treats. Here's a guide on eating healthier that I thought was pretty interesting: link. 
• Find a hobby that involves getting out more. Whether it's exercise (swimming, biking, walking/jogging) or involves you joining a club or visiting a local community center, just getting out of the house in general is a great way to mitigate stress. As someone who plays a fair few video games, I know that those can often be good distractions as well, but avoid being too sedentary if you can (maybe see if you have your old Wii somewhere?).
• Limit your alcohol intake. This is one of the things I saw repeated the most everywhere that I looked for advice about stress mitigation, but it is so, so important. Alcohol is a depressant, and it can exacerbate your anxiety and stress, even when drinking responsibly. 

I know that there are other aspects of managing stress and anxiety that I didn't go over, but I wanted to hit the basics and help keep people informed. It's hard to understand just how debilitating those knots tying themselves inside you can really be without experiencing it yourself, and as someone who has many times, I know the struggle.

Please take care of yourselves out there, and have a wonderful rest of your week and a peaceful weekend. Whatever happens, you are strong enough and capable enough; don't let anyone tell you otherwise. This is Brendan signing off for now; have a good one!