Tired eyes, how long have you been looking at this screen today? And how about yesterday and this week? Isn’t it unimaginable to think of how the phone you are holding is about the same age as your parents or even slightly younger?
Tired eyes, what have you been seeing a lot recently? Is that the one picture that you cannot get off your mind, so you keep coming back for more, or is this the endless lives that look so different from yours, but surprisingly common among all the people showing up on your feed?
Tired eyes, are there any points on that screen that gives you the joy you can carry with you even when you no longer look at any screen?
Since you are looking right into this article, I want to let you in on a not-so-hidden secret: while you are special, your anxiety is usually not. It has been experienced by your great great great grandfather, great great grandmother, your parents, all the famous people that you have known, and all your friends that you will become a stranger to one day.
You’ve got a notification!
For a second, let your imagination run wild, and instead of calling this sensation - this thought - this feeling - this moment - anxiety, call it a notification. If another person wants to reach you, they will try to send a signal to you, hence a notification will be sent to you. Anxiety is just one way that your body uses to communicate with you. The notification can vary, it can be a short ring, a longer tone with vibration, or a long alarming noise in case of emergency. Similarly, you might have experienced many different degrees of intensity when anxiety comes knocking at your door so that it can deliver some messages. You will not want to miss all the important messages, even though some days you might receive spam messages.
Just like how your phone has different ringtones so you can distinguish a message from a new one like from Tiktok, once you get to know the types of anxiety that are visiting, it might give you time to decide how to react to them.
How to process anxieties
Have trusting people to read this message with you
There are different types of anxieties that you store within your body. It can be nerve-wracking to try to figure out what kinds of messages you are receiving by yourself, especially if you have had unpleasant experiences before. So this can be the opportunity to ask for help from your allies: someone you know can have your back. They can be your sibling, your parents, your friends, or sometimes, your journals.
Take back control of your body
The feelings of anxiety can spread quickly within your body, and try to take over the control. In order to not let this happen and imprint the trauma in you, it is necessary to know how to quickly stop the overflowing notifications, you can anchor your body using your five senses. For starters, you can distract the tunnel focus in the feelings by naming things:
What are the 5 different things you are seeing?
What are the 4 things you are hearing?
What are the 3 things you are touching?
What are 2 things you are smelling?
What is one thing you are tasting?
Reduce the noises
It is not always easy to find time to sit down and go through these feelings or answer the questions if the world is dragging you into its endless small trivial trends or activities. Seriously, how many of last year Tik Tok challenges stay relevant to you until today? Ok, except for the stupid walk for your stupid mental health.
The point is, your brain does not like to handle so many concurrent thoughts at the same time, multitasking is not its strength when it comes to anxiety. Therefore, it needs your help to do its job better.
Resources
This whole article is an attempt to lure you to visit https://maps.anxietycanada.com/ This website is especially helpful because it provides you all: the explanation, the guide, the plans in clear steps to take, the community of people etc. that are so easy to follow. But do not take our word for it, click that link to find out for yourself.
