How To Practice Mindfulness For Anxiety

by ajohnson | Oct 9, 2021 | Blog, Life, Opinion

How To Practice Mindfulness For Anxiety

The pandemic has brought me so much anxiety even with it dragging on. It’s mentally exhausting and affects almost every aspect of my life as a mom, wife, friend, and businesswoman. The feeling of dread, unexplainable fear, and uneasiness can be disruptive to my day, leading to restlessness. It can evoke feelings of agitation, distress, and worry. It induces physical symptoms like dizziness, sweating, and muscle tension. I believe I manifested myself getting COVID-19 because I was so anxious that I was going to get it, or what if I already had it. Was I doing enough to keep us safe, or when did we wash our hands and masks last? So many questions and concerns. It’s overwhelming and exhausting. 

According to American Psychological Association (APA), anxiety is “an emotion characterized by feelings of tension, worried thoughts and physical changes like increased blood pressure.”

Anxiety is a normal emotion. It’s a mental issue that almost everybody experiences. According to statistics, it is estimated that 264 million adults around the globe experience anxiety. (World Health Organization, 2017) and that an estimated 31% of all adults are said to experience an anxiety disorder at some point in their life. (Anxiety and Depression Association of America, 2020).

It’s crucial to know the difference between anxiety and anxiety disorder to get the medical attention you need to identify and treat your condition.

How To Practice Mindfulness For Anxiety

The possibility or increase of your risk of having anxiety may have resulted from lifestyle and possibly environmental factors—for example, health condition, sleep issues, relationship problems, work or school troubles. The good thing is that anxiety symptoms can be relieved, and one of them is practicing mindfulness.

Since anxiety can take a toll on you mentally and physically, reducing it and stress can be done by paying attention and handling time. According to Healthline, it’s about turning down the volume in your mind by coming back to the body. It can help you focus on the present moment and soften your reactivity. And how people can incorporate mindfulness practices throughout the day.

Mindfulness involves practicing guided imagery, breathing methods and other relaxing practices helping you relax your mind and body. To help alleviate your anxiety and staying in the present, explore these mindfulness practices that might help you.

Setting an intention

It would be best to have something to remind you of your purpose, and setting an intention works best for this. Yoga instructors encourage doing this before starting your day. When an important task gives you anxiety, remind yourself why you need to go through the process. If it’s a promotion interview, find it within yourself to focus on the main reason why you pursued it. 

An intention can be simple, it doesn’t have to be hard. It can be as little as “I will make it through this day without getting mad or yelling at anyone.” Don’t overcomplicate it because then you won’t use it or want to do it.

Doing guided meditation

Doing meditation practices is one of my favorite mindfulness exercises. It helps in processing thoughts and emotions with more acceptance. It improves sleep, lessen feeling burnout, depression, and helps with high blood pressure and gives you more clarity and focus. As anxiety can make us feel like we’re losing control, meditating strengthens our mind and body connection. And you can try guided mindfulness meditation programs online like Youtube and some apps.

When I did end up getting COVID-19, the first few days I had the worst headache I’ve ever had in my life. Worse than a migraine, so bad that I thought I needed to call my dentist to have my teeth pulled out because the sinus pressure and head pain was so bad. The guided meditations from Peloton really helped me to remember to breathe when it was painful. They helped my head slow down and not worry that the rest of the family might be infected or sick too. They helped get me through the roughest parts of the sickness. And even still after I’m recovered, they help with acceptance and processing and healing.

Going for a walk 

Whether it’s a short jaunt or a stroll in the park, going for a walk can really affect your focus. There’s something about just being in the moment, without much of a care in the world, and being in one of the outside world. 

My favorite kind of walk, now that it’s cooler here in Arizona, is to take Louie and Romeo for a 20 minute walk around the neighborhood. It’s a win win because we get outside and get some exercise. And they get tired by the time we get home so they rest!

Opening your attention to the present moment

You might have heard it said many times and in many ways that opening your attention and focusing on the present moment is the key to enjoying life. Paying attention is not easy nowadays with all the distractions around us. We are used to anticipating what will happen in the future and thinking ahead to be ready when something happens. Aside from being stuck in thinking about the future and events in the past also boggles your focus. When you get cornered with the what-ifs and maybes, you ultimately feel worn out and exhausted. So stay in the moment. Use mindfulness-based stress reduction by finding the perfect balance of cultivating a sense of presence and reflecting on the past and future. 

Focus on breathing

Having negative thoughts affects your focus. To help yourself, focus on your breathing. Close your eyes, take a deep breath, and settle on a comfortable sitting position. You can learn different techniques for this. Take deep and controlled breathing or shallow and present. It works in relieving stress and frustrations.

I have had to work so hard on remembering and learning to breathe as I have a tendency to hold my breath when things get hard or overwhelming. I have found though, that when you breathe, it helps relax your body. And ends up helping the tension and tough feelings go away. Breathing makes things easier and the more you can tune into doing it, the better off you will be.

There are a number of mindfulness techniques that can help people anxious feelings and generalized anxiety disorder. Mindful breathing, body scan, and mindful of thoughts and feelings are only a few of the most popular techniques that help with stress and anxiety. While these techniques do take some practice to get used to, they can be very helpful in managing symptoms of anxiety on a daily basis. For people who suffer from generalized anxiety disorder, mindfulness can be an essential tool for helping to manage the condition. In conclusion, mindfulness is a valuable tool that can help reduce stress and anxiety levels in people of all ages in daily life.

Importance of Time Management in Personal Life

by ajohnson | Oct 7, 2021 | Blog, Life, Opinion

I’m guilty of obsessing about how to manage my time better. There’s just so much to do, and the 24-hour daily window is just not cutting it. Since time is a finite resource, it’s essential to handle it well, not crash and burn.

It’s all about making choices. When you want to boost your productivity and have better work quality, good time management is always on top of the strategies. When I want to create better opportunities for myself or advance my career, I struggle to determine how to go about it since I always feel like my time is constrained. But lo and behold, once I try different ways of managing my time, I see that I can do more even when there’s less time. It also results in minimizing work stress, making me more focused and effective.

On the other hand, time management is just as crucial for your personal life. How managing your time wisely can help you create a healthy balance between your personal and professional life. It can make you take control of your day and can positively affect your entire well-being. Much has been written about why it’s essential to work on time management to improve your professional life, but I’d like to dedicate this post to give more insight into its effect on your personal life.

Importance of Time Management in Personal Life

When you control your time, you also take back control of your life. As you grow old and take on more roles, a lot is expected of you and being able to manage your time well possibly reflects on the quality of your personal life. Throw kids, pets, and a spouse into the mix, and you’ve suddenly got yourself some more time restraints. This can cause your personal life to derail if not addressed and fixed. Some of these indications are:

Less stress 

One of the best and effective time management tactics is making your important tasks and thoughts. Through this, you can review your tasks and go about your day knowing that you are handling everything alright. It automatically means stress-free. When you control your time, you’ll also gain more extra time for yoga, golfing, reading, or dancing to get your energy moving. It also results in having a better sleeping pattern. 

Less distraction

Importance of Time Management in Personal Life

Why is it so difficult to avoid distractions? And if you’re like me, then you know how ideas can be fleeting, even good ones, and you tend to forget about these golden nuggets of insights. The good news is that I found out that time management is the answer to this. List the most important tasks you need to complete within the day. Knowing the enormity of what you’re supposed to accomplish and giving yourself break times keeps you more motivated and focused on getting them done.

More energy

Having a better work-life balance means having sufficient energy. No burnout, no feeling exhausted all the time, both are benefits of time management. By understanding the value of time, you also have the clarity of your goals, including having enough time to spend with friends and family.

More time to think and do things that you love

Don’t we all want time freedom to think and do things that we love? I always hear someone say that working smarter is way better than working hard. Time management is all about setting your priorities straight, which gives you the chance to pursue new interests. Putting a value on time creates more opportunities to take action and, of course, the possibility of fulfillment in all aspects of your life.

Improves self-discipline

A great time management strategy means having the ability to control your actions, feelings, and thoughts. In other words, it’s about self-discipline, which focuses on one’s self. Some people struggle with this, and it’s just too easy sometimes to give in to procrastinating. But if you have efficient time management, your self-discipline improves your life by developing good communication skills, and you get to spend your time with things and people that truly matter to you.

Make better decisions

Since time management skills help you get enough sleep, you also have a better decision-making process. When you’re not stressed about something, you also tend to see the whole picture or the situation because you have free time. It makes for sound decisions, whether it’s on your relationships or career, what difference exhaustion makes when trying to achieve your goals. Since time management skills help you get enough sleep, you also have a better decision-making process. 

Improves quality of relationships

In maintaining relationships, having time for each other is essential. Although it’s also filled with pressures and decisions, the time has the most impact on keeping your relationships survive when balancing work and personal life. Making each other a priority is supposed to be a given, and once it gets disrupted, intimacy and trust might suffer. So time management helps you improve your relationships by being aware of each other, accountable for your responsibilities, and of course, spending time together.

When it comes to time management, it’s important to remember that quality is better than quantity. Sure, you may be able to get more things done if you rush through them, but the work won’t be as good as if you take your time. Instead of trying to do everything at once, try to break down your tasks into smaller goals that you can achieve more quickly. This will help you to not only meet your deadlines, but also to improve your time management skills overall.

Another thing to keep in mind when it comes to time management is the importance of priorities. Not everything is equally important, so you need to be able to distinguish between the things that need to be done right away and the things that can wait. This will help you to focus on the most important tasks and get them done faster.

Finally, don’t forget about the role of technology in time management. With so many distractions available online, it can be easy to waste a lot of time without even realizing it. To avoid this, try to set some rules for yourself about how much time you’re allowed to spend on social media or other online activities each day. This will help you to stay focused and get more done in less time.