Here follows the promised second instalment on Anxiety...
There are copious blogs on Anxiety. Some that I have checked out are:
Anxiety Guru - as our brain controls everything, we need to deal with our thoughts first.
"I Am Living With Anxiety" - Doug comments that: "Feelings and sensations cannot be controlled, but thoughts and impulses can be."
Home Life Simplified - offers advice on living authentically.
There are just as many sites:
www.beyondblue.org.au
www.mindhealthconnect.org.au/anxiety
www.psychology.org.au
I am an information magnet. I need to know the ins and outs of anything but of ailments in particular. The more informed about, in this case, what anxiety is, how it works and its symptoms, the more I could understand it and actually manage it.
Easier said than done, of course.
Calm Clinic and other sites like those above, retaught me that when we experience a fight of flight response, chemicals such as adrenaline and cortisol are released. This release causes our bodies to change involuntarily. Our breathing quickens. Our heart pumps faster. Our bodies prepare to fight by tensing muscles. Our awareness is heightened. All this was once necessary to fight the saber tooth tiger. Our reptilian and mammalian brains took charge.
Today our stresses are not life-threatening. Yet, our bodies react in the same way. Add in our vicious thought patterns to this stressful mix and we have anxiety. I learned that I was stuck in this survival mode. Stress can deplete our neurotransmitter levels, the one class of neurotransmitter that actually keeps the brain tranquil. So instead of needing to "fight" I needed to learn the importance of calming myself.
I needed to deal with the thoughts immediately. I did so by replacing the thoughts of doom and gloom with coping statements. Statements such as:
"This won't last forever."
"I got over this before, so I can do it now."
"I can do this."
After managing my thoughts I could add in affirmations and learn to relax and stay calm through:
* Deep breathing
* Yoga or Tai Chi
* A brisk walk around the block
* Meditation
* Focusing on a positive word or phrase
* Progressive muscle relaxation
If anxiety is in fact a learned response, as I read, something that has become a habit, then by rights, it can be unlearned.
There is hope yet.
Published By: Valdone's Leaf
I danced all my life. I belonged to a Lithuanian folk dance group in Canada where I grew up. I commenced from a very young age and danced through my teens and twirled into young adulthood when we travelled around three corners of the globe (if a globe can have corners). Eventually, I began teaching folk dance in Canada and then later in Australia when I moved.
But since my daughters were born, I have not danced. Only vicariously through my girls' folk dancing (which lasted a blink of an eye) ballet, jazz and tap. They, unlike me, in their teens replaced these rhythmical pursuits with team sports.
Upon our return from living in Croatia, as I recorded in an earlier blog, I found Zumba. Together with my grown up daughters, we Zumba'ed for the term of our gym membership. After which I stopped due to injuries of one kind or another and nothing for over a year and a half.
Then I CRASHED. Grief hit me. Depression enveloped me. Anxiety startled me.
It took me a while to realize that I needed to do those things I once loved - namely dance.
Enter Nia.
Discover Nia - ONE practice that offers:
the joy of dance, the flexibility of yoga,
the mindfulness of meditation, the power of martial arts
the core strength of pilates, and more. Nia Australia
I found a different brand of movement to music. It was a gentle way to begin. But not gentle enough to stop the confusion. My feet and hands could not do simultaneous movements. I was uncoordinated to say the least ( a feeling I last felt after the birth of my first daughter when I joined a fitness class for new moms and my hands and feet went every which way but the way they should!).At the end of the class, I asked the teacher why this was so and she mentioned this by now not so revolutionary neuroplasticity of the brain. With practice, my brain would form new neural pathways and it would be easier to coordinate (not to mention healthy for the brain, too!).
Some months after Nia, I reintroduced Zumba.
Was I doing something wrong?
First lesson: no sweating.
Second lesson: no sweating.
What was wrong here? I needed to get out of my head and into my body, my psychologist said. But my body was flopping at this work out. Thinking that perhaps a Zumba class for beginners and Seniors was not exerting enough, I decided to give it another go before joining a full-on class. This time I did build up a sweat. And the next time, too. Maybe after focusing on the instructress' moves for two weeks, I learned something and was now able to dance at least half the class without concern of what the moves were. And, whether or not Perfectionist Valdone needed to get it perfectly right.
So even Zumba is helping to keep my brain in shape as I am finding out reading "The Brain That Changes Itself" by Norman Doidge.
The joy of dance is slowly beginning to fill my body again.
Dance keeps me out of my head for a time.
Dance.
Published By: Valdone's Leaf
But since my daughters were born, I have not danced. Only vicariously through my girls' folk dancing (which lasted a blink of an eye) ballet, jazz and tap. They, unlike me, in their teens replaced these rhythmical pursuits with team sports.
Upon our return from living in Croatia, as I recorded in an earlier blog, I found Zumba. Together with my grown up daughters, we Zumba'ed for the term of our gym membership. After which I stopped due to injuries of one kind or another and nothing for over a year and a half.
Then I CRASHED. Grief hit me. Depression enveloped me. Anxiety startled me.
It took me a while to realize that I needed to do those things I once loved - namely dance.
Enter Nia.
Discover Nia - ONE practice that offers:
the joy of dance, the flexibility of yoga,
the mindfulness of meditation, the power of martial arts
the core strength of pilates, and more. Nia Australia
I found a different brand of movement to music. It was a gentle way to begin. But not gentle enough to stop the confusion. My feet and hands could not do simultaneous movements. I was uncoordinated to say the least ( a feeling I last felt after the birth of my first daughter when I joined a fitness class for new moms and my hands and feet went every which way but the way they should!).At the end of the class, I asked the teacher why this was so and she mentioned this by now not so revolutionary neuroplasticity of the brain. With practice, my brain would form new neural pathways and it would be easier to coordinate (not to mention healthy for the brain, too!).
Some months after Nia, I reintroduced Zumba.
Was I doing something wrong?
First lesson: no sweating.
Second lesson: no sweating.
What was wrong here? I needed to get out of my head and into my body, my psychologist said. But my body was flopping at this work out. Thinking that perhaps a Zumba class for beginners and Seniors was not exerting enough, I decided to give it another go before joining a full-on class. This time I did build up a sweat. And the next time, too. Maybe after focusing on the instructress' moves for two weeks, I learned something and was now able to dance at least half the class without concern of what the moves were. And, whether or not Perfectionist Valdone needed to get it perfectly right.
So even Zumba is helping to keep my brain in shape as I am finding out reading "The Brain That Changes Itself" by Norman Doidge.
The joy of dance is slowly beginning to fill my body again.
Dance keeps me out of my head for a time.
Dance.
Published By: Valdone's Leaf