As someone with anxiety, I have learned, and maybe you have too, the tool to help you when you are feeling a panic attack. It is to think of five things you can see, four you can hear, three you can touch, two you can smell, (and one maybe taste). This act of bringing yourself to the present moment can be classified as grounding oneself. While very useful, I find that this is sometimes not enough.
Try to think of the memories you have of last summer, the summer before that, and the summer before that. Think of the fun, cliche summer memories you have had throughout your life, whether it be in the car listening to the radio, hanging out by the pool, or watching fireworks and lighting sparklers during the muggy nights. Do you have songs attached to them?
As we discussed earlier this week, staying hydrated is not just important for your physical health, but can have substantial benefits for your mental health and your mood too. This is especially important now during the summer, where the heat and humidity can make it even easier to get dehydrated.
That may sound a tad overdramatic, but if you’ve ever logged onto one of your social media accounts and have seen even just one fewer follower, you likely have had a million questions begin running through your head:
As we hit the halfway point of summer (how did that even happen?), the temperatures are probably getting even higher, if they’re not high enough already. If you live in an area with high humidity, it can feel even hotter than whatever temperature is displayed on your watch or phone.
I don’t know if anyone else feels this way, but I’m honestly starting to feel like 2020 is the most horrendous year I have ever experienced. It just feels like everywhere I turn things are going worse than usual and nothing seems to be improving any time soon.
Sometimes, we need a physical, tangible option to help us accomplish our goals and put the things that we want to work on into words instead of having them just floating around our heads....
It could be a notification about anything: a text from your best friend, an email, or a DM on Instagram. No matter what it is, getting that alert via vibration and/or ding! can send a wave of brief panic through your body, even if it’s a trivial random news notification about five new recipes to try this week.
About a year and a half ago, I started a morning journal. I had no clue how to structure it, or how it even came into fruition. I do love To Do lists, so I would have small journals that would contain my daily To Do’s. From there, I have progressively grown and evolved what has now become a crucial part to my morning routine, so much that when there’s no pen on paper for that day, the day is definitely off.
I wrote the following short story (in the genre of magical realism!) about a girl who, like many of us here, struggles with anxiety throughout her everyday life.
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