Ever feel like your anxiety isn’t allowing you to be your most productive self?

Hi I’m Cynthia. An abstract fine artist, American girl living in Toronto and a new guest blogger on Take Note. I am so excited to share ideas, inspirations, and tips with you all.

5 Gentle Activities To Try While You Have Anxiety

One of the things I deal with on a daily basis is anxiety, and sometimes it can be pretty debilitating because it doesn’t only take over my thoughts, but also my body. Anxiety can cause muscle tension, headaches, shakiness, and the list goes on.

Over the years I’ve learned about things I can and cannot do while I have anxiety, and I try to make sure that they’re productive but not energy draining.

Disclaimer:

Before I jump into my list of 5 things you can do when you’re having anxiety, I first want to put a disclaimer out there that I’m not a doctor nor a therapist, or psychologist. These are just things that work for me and they may not work for everyone as we all have different needs and experience anxiety differently. If you ever find yourself having really bad anxiety, and anxiety attacks, I highly recommend that you tell your physician immediately. You can also text ‘CONNECT’ to ‘741741’ from anywhere in the USA, at any time, about any type of crisis. A live, trained Crisis Counselor receives the text and lets you know that they are there to listen. Please feel free to checkout their website and book mark it if you’re someone who deals with anxiety & mental health issues at Crisis text line.

Now that we have all those disclaimers out of the way, let’s start with the TIPS.

1. READING

This is an easy but very enjoyable one to do. Reading can really make a difference, and allows you to step away from your thoughts and put your mind into a book. I recommend that you leave your phone in your room, or if your room is your comfortable spot then put your phone somewhere that it is out of sight because the last thing you want is for a notification to come through and start blinking while you’re trying to read.  Go to that quiet part of your home with a nice warm cup of tea, or whatever it is that you like to drink; I would usually reach for matcha because it’s delicious and very healthy.

You can read anything you want but I find books are usually the best and most therapeutic for me. There is something about opening, holding one in your hands, and turning pages. Another great reason to read books is because it gives your eyes a break from the screen. We tend to spend hours looking at our screens from our computer, phone, and tablet.

So just take that much needed break and enjoy some literature!

2. JOURNAL

You can journal about almost anything.  For example, I’ve recently incorporated a daily mood tracker to my journal because it allows me to go back and see if there’s a pattern or even to reflect on the days when my mental state was either good or bad.

My favorite thing about journaling is that it’s something that is personal to you. People often create vision boards to manifest the life they want with their career, finance, and health. Why make a board when you can make an entire journal?  Grab magazines, markers, and color pencils to create the life you love. You can also find many creative examples of journaling on Pinterest.

3. GET ARTISTIC

I am a very creative person, and one of the things that helps me immensely when I have anxiety is having a creative outlet like writing, painting, editing images, and sometimes even cooking can be therapeutic.

Often I meet other creatives who feel this way too. For example, Cynthia, a.k.a Sounthie, shares her makeup creations on Instagram and finds the process of painting her face to be therapeutic and a positive way to cope with her anxiety, and stress. I highly recommend that you take a look at her work because it will blow you away!

Having a creative outlet can help with anxiety, and I find that to be FANTASTIC but I also encourage myself to go a step further by doing something that I wouldn’t post on social media. It immediately removes the pressure of trying to make it perfect, because when we’re making things with social media in mind we tend to worry about what others will think of it. It’s great to be able to do certain things just for your own eyes, and hey you might even like how it looks enough in the end to share on your IG stories, or even post on your feed.

4. DE-CLUTTER YOUR PHONE

Speaking of social media…let’s talk about all of those files and random pictures that we don’t even like that we keep forgetting to delete from our phones; because we all can use a little extra space in our phones.

One of the things that I never get around to is de-cluttering and organizing my phone. Do you ever feel like you just don’t want to do anything at all? Well here’s a good one that you will be able to do from the couch or bed.

Go through your pictures, files, and downloads. Then delete material that no longer serves you or pictures that you already have saved on your computer or google cloud, and for everything you’ve decided to keep, make folders for them. That way it’ll be easier to find things instead of searching forever for that perfect picture of your cat to share with your friends. Your phone will thank you for creating more space and you will thank yourself for organizing everything.

However, don’t stop there! You can use this method with your email, Pinterest, and anything else that may be on your computer of phone.

5. LIGHT CLEANING

Our homes and bedrooms are our sanctuaries. It should be a place of rest and relaxation. Putting in some time to clean the house is a great way to do something productive while we are experiencing anxiety.

The type of cleaning I’m talking about isn’t the kind that requires a lot muscle or strength. Of course if you find that you can do that while experiencing anxiety, then by all means get to scrubbing and taking laundry up and down the stairs (oh how I dread laundry days). Think about something that doesn’t involve using too much strength like dusting, wiping down the counters, or organizing shelves, and putting things away.

Thank you for reading

I hope my little list provided some ideas of things to do while you’re experiencing anxiety. If you feel that you’re unable to perform certain tasks please don’t allow yourself to feel pressured. Sometimes taking a nap really helps and there is nothing wrong with that. It can also be helpful to talk about it with someone. If you feel like you may need to get things off your chest, make sure it’s with someone you trust who will be responsible with what you tell them. Make sure to let them know that you need someone to listen, or if you’re looking for advice then make sure to express that too, and that may even be better with a therapist.

All of the tips I’ve shared with you were things I discovered over time. Have patience with yourself and trust that things will get better and easier to manage as time goes by.

If you want to see more of me, my art and have honest conversations about mental health, then come say hi to me on Instagram @modourncolor.  I would love to get to know you all.