How I Deal with My Anxiety

Anxiety is something that I have struggled with on several occasions. The worst episode was when I was in University and the doctor that I had at the time recommended that I start taking medication to help treat it. The medication didn’t really work and I just felt extremely drowsy whenever I’d take it. Over time I did finally get out of that rut and started to feel better. Since then I’ve always been very cautious whenever I start to feel anxious and will do whatever I can to fix it so that it won’t escalate.

I’ll talk about how I’m feeling with close friends and family because I find that it always helps to talk about it. I’ll also try to reduce my stress level by doing things like yoga, taking on less (it's so hard for me to do this), delegating, using essential oils and getting massages.

After I had my first baby I started to feel very anxious and immediately contacted my doctor because I didn’t want things to get out of control. He had me do a test so I could be diagnosed and it was clear that I was experiencing anxiety. Having a child was a huge change for me and I didn’t expect it to be as difficult as it was and that was probably what caused the anxiety.

Instead of putting me on medication, my new doctor recommended that I try meditating. My mind is always racing and I really didn’t believe in meditation. As a child my parents always did it and they’d take us to the temple, where we’d be expected to meditate and I just didn’t understand how to do it, nor did I enjoy it. So trying to do it as an adult wasn’t working for me and I gave up on it after a few attempts. Luckily my feelings of anxiety subsided as I became more comfortable with my new lifestyle as a first-time mom.

About a year ago I started to really get into audiobooks and a lot of the authors would talk about the benefits of meditation, so I decided to look into it again. After doing a bit of research, I learned that there were apps that could help guide my practice. I decided to sign up for the Calm app and I am so glad that I did. It offers a ton of options for beginners and really helps you learn how to meditate.

Though this app was extremely helpful, I still wasn’t consistently meditating and really wanted to work on it. That was when I came across the book Atomic Habits and I used a lot of the strategies mentioned in that book to help me develop this habit. In my latest YouTube video, I shared some of the strategies that my husband and I have been using to help us develop good habits. If there’s something that you want to work on and have trouble being consistent with, I highly recommend that you watch this video. These strategies have truly helped us and I know that they can help you further develop good habits.