524: Celebrate every step you take to feel better
This week on the Anxiety Slayer Podcast we’re talking about the importance of celebrating every step you take to feel better.
Anxiety is such a big issue that we sometimes forget the power of the little things - little things like your breath, meditation, and other different ways to relax. Yet, small though they are, the difference these little things can make in managing stress and anxiety is huge.
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Notes from this week’s episode:
Commitment means Recommitment
This is something I learned from a monk talking on the topic of spiritual development, but it applies to anxiety to and all cases of personal development.
Many of us set intentions and resolutions only to fail to maintain them at some point, we get thrown off course by illness, adversity, forgetfulness and difficult days. The teaching that helped me is that these things are only failures if we stop trying.
Whatever it is you choose to make steps to breaking free from anxiety, Tapping, walking, learning more about your mind and body type, if you get thrown off course begin again. No shame, no self-criticism, if you miss a day, or a week, just begin again, and you will benefit again.
StAY FOCUSED ON The things we can do
At this especially difficult time it's more important than ever to focus on our daily acts of care. It's easy to get swept away by events beyond our control and become overwhelmed. The daily steps we take to support ourselves keep us in hope and focused on the things we can do to support our mind.
“Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become.”
Small steps keep us moving forward
When we're moving forward, we're not stuck. Every self-care step, no matter how small, is a stand against anxiety holding us frozen in fear. That's worth celebrating.
The mind wants to jump to the next task or problem, if we let it do that it will skip over our progress. We need to practice pausing and saying “I did that”.
Little acts of self-care help us:
Build momentum
Increase our confidence
Make us proactive instead of reactive
Steadily reduce stress and anxiety
And are good for our mental health
Practical ways to celebrate our acts of self-care
Share them
With a friend or partner, or in our private Facebook Group. Your little acts of self-care get validated by sharing and you will inspire others.
Creative journaling
Writing down and illustrating the little moments where we made a good choice, felt some joyful immersion, or supported another help us register those moments in a deeper level.
The anxious mind is impatient, it wants to see the results, but we won't see results until we pave the way. The formula is planting, caring and time. Anxiety doesn't like the time factor.
A tree starts with a seed. Meditating on that in detail and creatively can help us value the small beginnings we make that will fear fruit.
“I keep a journal of words, photos and little sketches that help me remember things that inspire me and the steps I’ve taken on difficult days to support myself. Sketching notes helps me learn and remember. When I look back and see how I got through a challenging day in the past it helps me feel grounded about challenges I might face in the future. ”
On challenging days our steps might be tiny, but they still count
Sometimes it feels like it takes all we've got to take a shower. Celebrate the shower. Tell a friend or write it down. “Today I was struggling, but I took a shower.”
Once we've taken one small step, we can take another, it breaks the spell of inertia.
Start logging your self-care every day, and you can look back at the end of the year and see how far you've come.
Anxiety Slayer on Patreon
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