Posted by ClearSkies on August 14, 2007, at 15:48:39
In reply to How do you relax?, posted by Guy on August 14, 2007, at 15:01:21
Hi there, Guy, I don't think we've met before. Anxiety and panic are part of my daily life (as is depression), and there are a variety of things I do to remind myself to relax.
Soothing music - for some people, this means ambient, new age sounds. I find noises to be really distracting; our home is being remodeled and the constant din, for 12 hours a day, 6 days a week, sets my teeth on edge, to the point where I can't even comfortably read a book at the moment. But I try to keep the noise counter balanced by having soothing music playing and wearing noise canceling headphones - it brings my anxiety down by a couple of notches just doing this.
I take a chelated magnesium supplement, and a B12/folic acid supplement. While they seem to have minimal benefits, whenever I think that they don't seem to be doing much and stop taking them, I find that my general state of anxiety increases. So I take them (what's a few more pills in my day, right?)
I pet my cat regularly.
I take a walk, no matter how short, every day.
I try to meditate - this is my biggest challenge of all. The mental chatter that anxiety creates makes it so hard to find peace that some days I close my eyes and just amaze myself that my head just won't slow down, much less stop. When it's this bad, I try just to watch what's happening in my head, and not comment on it. A busy mind is still worth contemplating, and perhaps marveling at.
The books make it sound so easy, don't they? "Just sit down and relax." Yeah, right. I think we each need to find the right things that help us to relax.
ClearSkies
poster:ClearSkies
thread:776239
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070808/msgs/776247.html