Tag: exercise

5 Tips For Dealing With A Panic Attack

Panic attacks can feel completely terrifying. They may come on suddenly and leave you feeling completely drained. Today, I am going to share with you my top five tips for dealing with a panic attack.

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1. Grounding exercises

Grounding exercises are meant to bring you back to the present moment. They can stop you from having the intense feelings of a panic attack by helping you to realize the situation you are in is not actually dangerous, since most panic attacks happen due to benign situations.

There are a number of different grounding activities you might try but I will give you my top ten.

  1. Squeeze something like Play-Doh.
  2. Play with a fidget spinner.
  3. Push your feet firmly into the ground.
  4. Hold a piece of ice.
  5. Listen to the world around you.
  6. Recite a poem in your head or aloud.
  7. Count backwards from 500 by sevens.
  8. Describe your surroundings.
  9. List information that is purely factual about yourself or the situation. For example, “I am Danna. I am sitting at my computer.”
  10. Touch something soft like a pet or a blanket.

These are some things that can help when you’re in the midst of a panic attack and need to ground yourself.

2. Meditation or deep breathing

Meditation is a form of grounding but I felt it deserved its own space. Meditation has been helping me a lot lately. I think it’s great to use both in the moment of a panic attack, but also to help lower your stress levels to hopefully prevent future panic attacks.

I really like to do guided meditations, but you can also just use music or other techniques. My meditation app of choice is called Insight Timer. If you want to read more about meditation, try this post I wrote about meditation tips.

Meditation can be practiced in many situations, but for situations where it cannot, you can try deep breathing exercises.

Some people really like box breathing, where you breathe in for the count on four, hold for the count of four, then exhale for the count of four, and repeat.

3. Positive self-talk

Positive self-talk can be very effective for dealing with a panic attack. However, this is a technique you will need to practice in advance. Otherwise, you may not remember to use it in the midst of a panic attack.

There are several phrases you can use. Some include “I am safe” or “This will pass”.

One that works really well for me is to remind myself that I am having a panic attack and not actually dying. I also try to remind myself the average duration of my attacks to remind myself that it will end.

4. Exercise

I find that exercise can be a good way to get the adrenaline out of my system. I’m not talking hardcore exercises either, but if that’s your thing then go for it.

What I usually do is take a brisk walk. When I can, I will take another person with me. My dog usually comes along, too.

I also like to punch pillows or a target that I have from when I used to take Tae Kwon Do lessons. You may enjoy other options like yoga, taking a run, or even jumping on a trampoline. Just make sure whatever form of movement you pick is healthy for you and your body.

5. Talk it out

This is probably the most effective way for me to cope with strong anxiety. It’s obviously not always going to be possible as there may be times where you don’t have immediate access to other people. But when you can, it is definitely healthy to open up.

When dealing with a panic attack, it can be easy to share more than others are comfortable hearing. It’s important to be respectful of the boundaries of others. If you’re not sure if the person is in a good place to listen to you talk about anxiety, make sure you ask them first.

Some closing thoughts

Dealing with a panic attack is always hard, but I am hoping these tips today will help you to have a better handle on them.

Grounding, meditation, positive self-talk, exercise, and talking it out are all healthy ways of expressing your anxiety. I hope you will try at least one new technique and implement it into your life.

Until next time,

Danna

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How To Create A Morning Routine

Today, I would like to share with you how to create a morning routine by walking you through how I am creating my own new morning routine.

For those of you who don’t know, I recently moved for school. Between moving and school, a lot will be changing for me, so it’s time to revamp my morning routine.

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Why create a morning routine?

Some of you may not be know why you should create a morning routine. Why do the same things every day? Here are a few of my reasons:

  • It can be a time saver. You can get everything you want done quicker because there’s no debate about what to do next.
  • It helps you incorporate healthy practices into your day. When you have a routine, you are more likely to do these things regularly.
  • It allows you make time for what matters. If you schedule time for it regularly, it must be important to you.

My new morning routine

My morning routine will have to change to adapt to my new schedule. With that being said, remember that it is important to frequently evaluate your routine and make sure it is serving you.

Here are the things I plan to do daily in my morning routine:

Journaling

I want to journal every morning to just get all my thoughts out so I can go about my day with less stress.

For me, this will look like a practice called Morning Pages, which comes from the book “The Artist’s Way” by Julia Cameron. I haven’t actually read this book yet, but I have heard a lot about this practice and I would like to try it.

Essentially, it is three pages of stream of consciousness writing that you do when you wake up in the morning.

Of course, there are plenty of other journaling practices one could do in the morning. Some can be found in my post on gratitude journaling.

Take my medication

This is an essential part of my daily routine. I have to take my medication in the morning, afternoon, and at bedtime.

For people who struggle with their mental health, finding the right medication or combination of medications can be essential to recovery.

I would encourage you to search on Psychology Today if you are in need of a psychiatrist to prescribe medications. They also have directories for therapists and group therapy if you are in need.

Plan my day

For me, this looks like bullet journaling. For others, it may look like using a planner or time blocking on Google Calendar.

This keeps me on track to get everything that I need done so that I don’t miss any tasks, small or large.

I like to color code when I plan, so I will have different colors of pens for different types of tasks. Each of my classes starting later this month will likely get its own color assigned to it.

Eat breakfast

I never miss breakfast. It’s so important to your physical and mental health to be eating enough and part of that is getting in all your meals and snacks.

When I was younger, I struggled with an eating disorder. Part of not falling back into that is to make eating all my meals a non-negotiable habit.

I feel so much healthier now that I allow myself to eat whenever I feel hungry. Hunger is not the enemy. It’s just a signal from your body that you need food. It’s okay and even necessary to listen to that signal.

Take care of my dog

I am training a service dog to help me with my mental health. Her name is Lily. I walk her at night usually because it’s so hot during the day this time of year, but I still have to take her out and feed her in the morning.

I also like to give her some play time. She has a toy fox that she loves.

While training takes place randomly throughout the day, I do like to do some targeted training daily. Her training with tasks to assist me is going great, but we still need some work on public access skills since we haven’t been leaving the house except for essentials lately.

Follow my Instagram @musingsbydanna if you’d like to see Lily! I will be posting some videos of her soon, hopefully.

Exercise

This will be a new habit for me as well. I used to over-exercise when I had an eating disorder, so I will be monitoring this morning habit closely to make sure it stays healthy.

I got workout clothes today since I didn’t have any, so I am one step closer to starting this habit.

The benefits of exercise are more than just physical. I am much more concerned with how exercising may be able to help with my depression. I know I always feel better even after just taking a walk, so I am hoping that adding in an actual workout will make the benefits greater and longer lasting.

Shower and get ready for my day

Showering can be hard for those of us who have experienced trauma. If this is something you’re struggling with, I would highly recommend two things. First, wear an oversized shirt or swimsuit that you can wash under while you shower. Second, listen to something calming during your shower.

I am usually the type of person to shower at night, but with adding in a morning workout, I feel like a morning shower is going to be pretty important.

Then, I will move on to getting dressed and ready!

A final note on morning routines

Your morning routine doesn’t have to look like mine though. You should customize it to look exactly how you want!

Feel free to email me (my contact info can be found here) and let me know what you have done to create a morning routine or exercise routine that you love.

As always, please share this post on social media if you enjoyed it. And don’t forget to sign up for my email list below! I will be letting everyone on my email list know how this new routine is going soon.

Until next time,

Danna

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