Anxiety Nation

I, like many people I know, suffer from anxiety. I have panic attacks. I get that fluttery, unsettled feeling in my arms and sometimes I have a tightness in my chest that feels like a block of cement. My mind starts on a marathon of sprints, jetting from one subject to another and I feel as if I'll never catch up. Tears often set up shop just behind my eyes and simply wait for the smallest event to allow them release. While anxiety is very common, and seemingly affecting more and more people with the pace of life ever increasing, it is still a very serious and difficult thing to conquer. It can also severely affect your life and your health.

On a day like today when I'm trying to read the paper by nine-o-clock to remain on my schedule, I am interrupted by a friend wanting to chat, my mother needing multiple moments for help with a flat tire, and emails from work, I start to feel the onset of my anxious symptoms. I look at the clock and want to cry that it is 11am and I am just now sitting down at my computer. I feel like a million things are pulling my attention and each interruption only increases my annoyance. My breathing has become shallow, I feel the tears put on their boxing gloves, and my hands feel as if they have tension injected directly into the veins. I work hard to avoid these feelings but they are inevitable in someone as tightly wound as I am in times of stress.

While I certainly do not have the answer to anxiety I have found some excellent ways to cope, and slowing down for a moment is by far the best advice I have ever been given. Taking 3 deep breathes, deep down into the stomach is a wonderful stress relief. Realizing that there are no real fires to put out helps put my situation in perspective (because my anxiety is often self inflicted and for no good reason). And whenever possible I stretch - a few sun salutations or simply reaching my arms up to the sky releases some of the physical tension I feel.

I do not like anxiety, especially when it affects my reactions to my family or friends. However, it seems as if it is an issue I have developed and need to address on a regular basis. Using these techniques can help bring me off the edge and relax for a moment - allowing me to get through my day, productive, calm and satisfied.