This evening, when I got home from work, I was feeling incredibly anxious.

I tried to pinpoint the source of my anxiety in an effort to try to control it. (Note to self: Re-living stressful moments of your day in an effort to de-stress is not effective). Though there were a ton of potential factors, I think I narrowed it down to a specific trigger.

As of late, I’ve been calling my mom on my drive home from work (between 5:15-5:30) because she just LOVES to hear that I’m leaving work at a decent hour. Now, I don’t want to point fingers at my poor mother and blame her for these crazy, stressful feelings I’m having. But, before I had even driven out of the parking lot, my chatty mama was talking a mile a minute.

Normally, I can hang.

Today, I felt my throat constrict and I gasped for air – quite literally. (Thank goodness it was in the privacy of my own car). I hung up on my mom while she was mid-sentence and threw my phone on the seat next to me. I rolled down my windows, took a few sips of water, and tried to breathe in deeply.

Obviously, I panicked even more.

Which meant more gasping for air.

And then even more panic.

Vicious cycle.

(I promise, I’m not usually this dramatic.)

I reached home and tried to lie down for a bit. I quickly realized that it wasn’t helping and, if anything, my thoughts were making me crazier.

I just sat with this feeling for 2 hours. I tried to push the thoughts away, but the more I pushed, the bigger they seemed.

Eventually, the stress started to dissipate. Beth came home and I think that talking to her helped distract me from everything else floating around in my mind. She really is the best, most wonderful thing to come out of Facebook. (One of our mutual friends connected us on FB when she was looking for an apartment and I was looking for a roommate).

We ended up roasting some veggies for dinner and drove to Yogurtland for dessert.

Talking to her helped ease my mind and I’m feeling much, much better now!

Lessons Learned from Today (and Life in General):

1. It is OK to remove yourself from the noise from time to time. In fact, it’s probably important that you do.
2. You can’t change the factors contributing to your anxiety ALL AT ONCE. Change is gradual. But you can tackle it, piece by piece.
3. The more you push against your negative thoughts, the more they prevail. So sit with it for a little bit. Test it out. And then toss it.

 

Here’s to hoping for a stress-free Tuesday! 🙂

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Let’s Chat!

• What’s your stress/anxiety trigger? How do you avoid putting yourself in those situations?
  
• What’s your favorite way to remove yourself from the “noise” of our everyday lives?