How often have you wondered what someone else was thinking? Do you ever think someone hasn’t heard what you said? Were they hearing you, but not really listening? Are you communicating what you want and what you need?
The truth is, we are not mind readers, we don’t know if people heard us, and sometimes, (alright fine, most times) we don’t say what we mean despite our best intentions.
You come to counseling sessions week after week and talk, talk, talk. Some weeks are better than others, but nothing seems to be changing. You’re tired, you don’t want to come, and you think “I’m wasting my money, time, and energy on this.” You call your therapist and inform him or her that you’ve decided to try something different because you just don’t get the ‘point’ of therapy.
Anxiety: a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease, typically about an imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome; excessive uneasiness and apprehension, may be accompanied by compulsive behavior or panic attacks.
Anxiety can be debilitating. It looks different for everyone. Here’s our top ten tips for calming your nerves and getting through it:
1. Take a deep breath and recognize where the anxiety is coming from. We can’t face or deal with our anxiety if we don’t know where it’s coming from. Stop and take deep breaths to calm yourself down so you can locate the anxiety.
More than several times, I’ve had people walk into my office and ask me why this is happening to their brother, sister, daughter, uncle, mother, again when they have had a good week/month/year.
Mental health is a constant uphill battle. People are allowed to have good days mixed in with their bad day. Those individuals battling mental health issues work incredibly hard to hang on to good days. However, it is difficult for our loved ones to understand the harsh realities of constantly struggling with mood disorders and mental illness.
Dr. Wayne Dyer once said, “If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” Let’s be honest, he said this many times over because IT’S TRUE!
How often have you thought about a situation and become upset, depressed, angered, or hurt by this? While some people are rather good at establishing perspective and can recognize the possibility that other truths may exist, others are not so good.
