Three micro practices for anxiety

My thoughts about anxiety have changed A LOT over the years.

It started out as a feeling I didn’t have a name for.

It was just always there, right under the surface.

I couldn’t relax, slow down, chill, or feel comfortable in my skin.

My brain was racing non-stop from one thought to the next and I was always on high alert.

Other kids didn’t seem to feel this way. They were playing, running around, and didn’t seem to have a care in the world. But I did, and I felt like there was something very wrong with me.

My parents fought a lot, my dad was an alcoholic, and my mom had Huntington’s Disease (a hereditary terminal brain disease) but I just shoved all of that down because no one was talking about any of it.

What I’ve realized over the last 5-ish years about anxiety:

* Anxiety is a normal and completely natural emotion. 

* Most people wake up feeling a little anxious and it’s normal because of how brains are wired.

* Nothing is wrong with you that you experience it even though society tells us crap like, “positive vibes only!” (barf)

* Because of my childhood experiences, my “danger meter” was set to the high setting so everything felt like a possible emergency. This was my primitive brain’s way of protecting me from potential danger, and I needed it at that level back then; but not anymore.

* It is 100% possible to rewire your brain and nervous system so it doesn’t stay stuck on the high setting of the “danger meter.”

* Anxiety doesn’t have to run or ruin your life.

So where can you start if you resonate with the thought, “I really hate my anxiety and I just want it to go the f*ck away!”

Start with a few micro practices.

I never give my coaching clients big lists of morning and evening routines, tell them they have to overhaul their lives, or create big boundaries if they don’t even know what a boundary really is.

And I never suggest anything I haven’t found a truckload of benefit from in my own life.

We start small in my world, kitten steps… (and yes, they are enough!)

1. Relax your jaw. Unclench it. Create some space between your top and bottom teeth. Move your bottom jaw from side to side. Relaxing your jaw sends a signal via your Vegas nerve to your brain that you are safe. 

2. Take a breath in for 4 counts and out for 6. The number of counts does not matter. What matters is that your exhale is longer than your inhale. When your exhale is longer than your inhale, it activates the parasympathetic part of your nervous system which encourages more chill.

3. Look around the space you’re in and slowly name 10 things you see. You can do this quietly or outloud. This is called orienting and it brings you to this current time and space. We’re often living in the past or present when we’re feeling anxiety and orienting helps you see that those things you’re spiraling about, aren’t actually happening which calms your system.

Now you have 3 EASY, EFFECTIVE AF, and free tools that you can use anytime to support yourself and your nervous system.

If you never did anything else but these 3 things a few times a day, you’d be so shocked by how different you feel in a few days or weeks.

Try ‘em for yourself. See how it goes.

You got this, Sunshine and I’ve always got your back!