MANAGING ANXIETY IN ANXIOUS TIMES JEANNINE MOGA, MA, MSW, LCSW Chief Happiness Officer, VETgirl, LLC Earlier this summer, Jeannine Moga, our Chief Happiness Officer at VETgirl, discussed how we can manage or tame our anxiety in a free YouTube LIVE event on Taming anxiety: Bio-hacks to reduce overwhelm in an overwhelming time.
KEY HIGHLIGHTS
This is all too much. We’re months into a pandemic, juggling safety issues, increasing caseloads, working parenthood, virtual learning, and countless other competing demands. Everyone is crabby, overstressed, overstretched, and worried about what fresh hell is around the corner. There. I said it. And now for the reality check: the anxiety that is bubbling up to the surface is asking for attention, too, and it will get in our way (and squirt out sideways via secondary emotions like frustration, anger, and helplessness) unless we manage it successfully. Management requires understanding both function and process . Anxiety is related to the central emotion of fear, and fear arises whenever the brain senses potential danger ( function ). This is good, folks – feeling fearful is a sign that your brain doing its job in service to your safety. However, chronic anxiety is like fear running amok. Worrying constantly does little other than making us experts in worrying ( process ); worry becomes the default setting in the brain, which can hijack other cognitive processes and send our best skills – like discernment, decision making, and emotional management -- off-line. How do we work with our fear and anxiety in a productive way? We can focus on self-regulation using these strategies:
1 GIVE ANXIETY AN OUTLET Move your body and raise your heart rate/respiratory rate for an intentional reason (exercise), not a fearful one (panic). Allow the body to discharge pent up energy so that it can also remember how to calm down. 2 DOWNLOAD IT We all need trustworthy sources of support who can hear us and hold our most difficult truths without judging, fixing, or giving unwanted feedback. Identify these “witnesses” and call them when you just need to download the things that are freaking you out. They don’t need to do anything but
listen with compassion – because we all need to be seen and heard. 3 BREATHE Learn to use your breath tactically to calm yourself down and get your neocortex online. Inhale through the nose to the count of four; hold that breath for two counts, and then exhale through pursed lips to the count of six, as if you are exhaling through a straw and wringing out the lungs like a towel. Repeat this process until you feel a shift to relaxation and softness your body. Your breath is a pause button that reminds your body (and brain) that feeling grounded is possible. (continued)
3
vetgirlontherun.com
Made with FlippingBook - Online Brochure Maker