Where does your anxiety sit in your body?
Firstly, is it anxiety or excitement? Our subconscious has a hard time telling the difference and since it’s main job is to keep us safe it defaults to anxiety, panic, fear. Not helpful, really. Take a moment or two to listen to your body, feel the emotions that are running around. Excitement? Embrace it, channel and do the thing! If you determine that it is, in fact, anxiety then try to pinpoint where it is sitting your body. For example, mine likes to sit either smack dab in the middle of my chest or in my stomach/throat. It feels heavy, deep, restricting to me. By locating where yours likes to hang out you can recognize it before it gets too invested in dragging you into a panic attack or depressive response or however your anxiety likes to assert itself. Ideally, you would then meditate or spend some time doing breathing exercises to calm your parasympathetic system and bring your brain down out of fight, flight or freeze. If your anxiety isn’t rooted in actual danger to yourself or others, taking the time to calm your response allows you to slowly regain balance and function better. This is NOT to take the place of mental health support in the form of therapy and/or medication to help regulate the anxiety; however, the more you can do for yourself the more effective your treatment plan will be.
Where does your stress sit in your body?
It’s one of those days: alarm goes off, hit snooze too many times, stubbed your toe getting out of the shower, coffee maker with no coffee in it, can’t find your keys, there is a huge traffic jam on your commute and it’s not even 9 a.m. You feel the tension in shoulders, neck, head even; but where else is the stress sitting in your body? Heaviness in your chest? Maybe your stomach is in “knots”? Low back spasms? Hard to take a deep breath? Take a moment and listen carefully to what your body is trying to tell you. It can take some practice, but the more you do this the easier it gets AND the more your body tells you. We are so used to “just powering through” “ignore the {pain, stress, anger, etc} and get it done”, etc. We know that doesn’t work (the proof is our completely stressed out society) so let’s try something different. Pause. Listen. Respond. Remember, it’s your body. It’s not going to react the same way your best friend does or your mom or your child. What works for someone else may not do anything for you. With patience and perseverance you will find the perfect way to address the stress in YOUR body.
Here are a few things to start you on your exploration of what works for you:
Hard to take a deep breath? Try box breathing: exhale completely, then inhale to the count of four, hold for the count of four, exhale for the count of four, hold for the count of four and repeat the cycle four times. This pattern allows your system to reset and your mind to calm. If you are still having trouble getting in a deep breath, try the cycle again.
Stomach all twisted up? Sip some warm water (with lemon and honey for extra love) then gently rub or pat the area just below your sternum on the left. This is a mind trick: if you are calm enough to rub your stomach then clearly you are not in mortal danger and your fight, flight, freeze will dissipate.
Tight shoulders? Inhale, squeeze shoulder blades together while scrunching shoulders up, hold for the count of 10 then blow out the air and drop your shoulders. Repeat until they are out of your ears.
Heaviness in your chest? Tap your fingers along your collarbone from the tips of your shoulders towards the middle and then down the sternum repeatedly. The repetitiveness of the action along with the tapping distract the brain. Then try the Box Breathing method mentioned above.
These are just places to start. The main thing is to find where it is and then try things to distract or relieve the stress in that area. Soothing music, meditation, a walk around the block, lock yourself in the bathroom and yell into a bath towel, chop wood, think outside the box. Once you find the things that work for you, make a note in your phone or post it on the refrigerator. Now go find the stress spot in your body and start working it out.