Dealing with Anxiety

It may seem like there isn't much you can do when you have so much crap going on in your mind. This happens to me every day... you are not alone. Sometimes I wake up thinking, 'Ugh I have so much to do before the weekends.' And honestly, I hate it. SMH, ADULTING! But I never let it get to me because it will just drive me crazy. When I overthink, I actually have the worst anxiety attacks, they really do hurt. I also go through phases where I have so much on my mind that I don't want to talk to anyone and that's never good, especially now that I'm more active on my campus. But anyways enough about me... Let me tell you how I get my shit together before I go CRAZY!...

So, when it comes to school, work, events and so on, I like to use a planner or a dry erase calendar. This is a great habit to start because you can write everything you need to do. I use my planner that I take with me everywhere and then I write the same thing or the most important things on my dry erase calendar. Every time I look at my planner I remember I have something that is due and I check it. If I ever forget anything and I'm home, walking past my calendar reminds me if I need to do anything for the week and so on. This has helped me a lot with school because I was a slacker and it also helped me with my anxiety.

As an art education major, painting and drawing have become a form of therapy for me. I strongly believe art can cure anxiety, trust me, you DO NOT need to be Picasso. Splashing buckets of paint on a canvas is fun! Doodle your life away, scribble, and melt some crayons! ART IS FUN. I took a ceramics class one semester and let me tell you... making things out of clay is amazing! Nothing needs to be perfect; this took me a long time to process because I am a neat freak, but JUST DO IT! Make a family of stick figures with some watercolors and call it a day. For those who are 21 and up... SIP N PAINT! Ask some friends to come through, have some wine, and paint. It's simple. If you hate painting then you can do some arts and crafts, scrapbooking, anything! Be creative it helps relieve stress and anxiety.

The last thing I am going to share is writing. Yes... writing, like, you know, a diary. But talk to yourself. Tell yourself how your feeling how your day was, express your feelings on paper. I have an obsession with collecting journals because they make them so cute these days. But, if you don't like writing... look at yourself in the mirror every morning and talk. (This will not make you look crazy in any way)

I will share with you a poem that was shared with me and I hope it helps you understand who you are as an individual when you look into the mirror:

The Woman in the Glass When you get what you want in your struggle for selfand the world makes you queen for a dayjust go to the mirror and look at yourself and see what that woman has to say. For it isn't your father or mother or husband whose judgment upon you must pass.... the person whose verdict counts most in your life is the one staring back from the glass. Some people may think you're a straight shooting chum and call you a wonderful gal, but the woman in the glass says you're only a bum if you can't look her straight in the eyes. She's the person to please, never mind all the rest, for she is with you clear up to the end.. and you've passed your most dangerous, difficult test if the woman in the glass is your friend. You may fool the whole world down the pathway of years and get pats on the back as you pass, but your final reward will be heartaches and tears If you cheated the woman in the glass.