2022 - 10:19 Anxiety Bonus Post Audio Public
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[00:00:00] Good morning. I wanted to come on just for a quick bit and talk to you about anxiety. Okay. So anxiety is something that many people have. Many people figure out ways to get through it and some people are kind of stuck in it right now. So, um, I love that our mental health is so freely openly now able to be discussed where for years it was just something that was quiet and people did not talk about it and it was almost frowned upon if you got any kind of mental health help, right?
So I love that it's so freely open, openly discussed and talked about. So I want to talk about it. Anxiety, and I'm going to read this because I want to make sure I get it right. I got this from the Mayo Clinic and, uh, they have just great way of, of putting things to words. So anxiety is an intense, excessive, and persistent worry and fear about everyday situations.
Um, it involves a [00:01:00] fast heart rate, rapid breathing, sweating, and feeling tired. Those all may occur. Um, it. They go on to say that common causes may be normal in stressful situations. Anxiety can be normal in stressful situations such as public speaking or taking a test. Anxiety is only an indicator of underlying disease when feelings become excessive, all consuming, and interfere with daily living.
So I'm going to start with what they say you should definitely seek medical care for. And then I'll go on to talk about the part that we can do with our self treatment and what, um, how I help people too. So seeking medical care, seek medical care, a doctor immediately. If you are thinking about suicide, if you can't work or complete activities of daily living, make an appointment to see a doctor.
If you can't work or maintain relationships, you're abusing [00:02:00] alcohol or other substances, feel sad and slowed down. There are many anxiety disorders and doctors would be needed for those. Now, the part that I can help with, the part you can help yourself with, okay? So yes, I am a weight loss coach. I am a concierge weight loss coach.
So I work with the entirety of whatever it is that makes it hard for you to lose weight. Anxiety? is one of those things. So, um, this one is, I hate to use the word fun, but like this gets me excited because I have people in my life who suffer from anxiety. And so to help them to, and, and then even myself from time to time, right?
So, um, what happens for me is when I start to feel anxious, those are when I have a binge moments. And so, um, what I'm going to add to Mayo Clinic on my side of things, Is that there's like a dread [00:03:00] and a complete physical uneasiness. You feel it in your skin, your head, your chest, your stomach. It's completely uneasy.
Um, it even prevents you from doing things. So, um, you might not be able to focus, you might not be able to stop crying. That happened to me the other day. I just, I was so anxious I couldn't stop crying. And so, um, it just happens. And, uh, that what I've really noticed with myself and my clients, it typically lingers the more you're resisting it.
And so that sounds a little odd because you think, why in the world would I want to dive into that? But if you do and you fully understand that it's normal, it's absolutely normal and that it's not a big deal. It's okay to have these feelings. It's okay to have these intense feelings. A lot of times it'll just settle down on its own.
But whenever I mentioned the part about the resisting it, when people start to resist [00:04:00] and any feeling, then they become anxious about it. They become fearful and worried and it, it becomes bigger and bigger and bigger. And then we really develop even more anxiety. And I'm not saying that's the only way to feel anxious, but that's the part that I see most often with clients that I'm with.
So the more you resist the original feeling, the bigger, the more intense, and the longer it lingers. Okay. So it might be, um, it might be a feeling of fear. It might be a feeling of worry. And if you stop and address that fear, that worry, um, understand where it's at, why it's there. Um, I like to play the what if game.
Or the so what game so like yeah, if that did happen, so what then what and um, So so what then what I guess is what I actually say to myself then what okay, so that does happen Then [00:05:00] what and usually like my brain gets to go to worst case scenario without it actually happening And then i'm able to calm down so much more because it's already like i've got to accept that the worst possible thing has already happened in my brain.
And so my brain's like, okay, in this scenario, I totally can, can get through this. And so I am not. making it bigger and bigger and bigger. And whenever I have made it bigger and bigger and bigger, that's when my binging of salt, sugar, salt, sugar cycle has happened. And it's the attempt to calm me down or distract me.
And so, um, I want to talk to you a few ways about, uh, how to calm your anxiety. So Mayo Clinic, we're going to go back to, we're going to go back to the guru, right? Mayo Clinic, physical activity. They say these are all the ways for self treatment. Physical activity, a healthy diet, regular sleep, and relaxation [00:06:00] exercises may all help reduce anxiety.
I 100 percent agree with everything they said. They say joining a support group may also help to manage symptoms effectively. It's best to avoid caffeine, alcohol, and nicotine. And so, some of that is so that the caffeine isn't amping you up more. amping you up more. It allows you to feel what you feel. Um, when you're having caffeine, you're not noticing if you're tired and sluggish.
And if you're already kind of juiced up little amped up, then the caffeine will make it even more intense of an amped up. Um, alcohol is going to try to mask some of your feelings. And when the intensity of the dread sets in, sometimes that can intensify that. Um, I'm not real certain why they want you to avoid nicotine, but I'm sure it's somewhere in the same lines of that.
But, um, some things that I add to it is, you heard me say, like, what is your original feeling? Like, what are you most worried about? Like, take it to that extent [00:07:00] of, then what? So, so if that happens, then what? And usually it, if you do that a few times, three to five times actually, keep asking yourself, then what, then what, then what?
Then you'll get to what was actually your biggest fear in the first place. So one of my favorite things, and I grabbed a few, but um, I'll show you this one. It's just like a box of cards. And so I think I actually got these at the grocery store because I thought they were so cute. But um, they have like just all these different prompts.
And so, like, a journal prompt. I'll read you a couple. So, uh, this one says, Give yourself a break from all your devices for an hour. Inhale peace, exhale anxiety. So, if you're familiar with, like, meditation type things, you're going to just breathe and, and, like, say this little mantra to yourself, I'm inhaling peace.
and I'm exhaling anxiety. And then you just keep like slowing down your breath, making your breaths longer and longer, the [00:08:00] inhale longer, the exhale longer, maybe add a hold in there, all that kind of thing. And so that'll help with that anxiety. And then it says, now put your attention on the people you are with and your surroundings in the present.
And so I love that, that awareness. And so, kind of like with the exercise, it's really making you out of what the cycle is. It's creating all the anxiety or that, like, anxiety. The, the, the set of your anxiety, right? The, the theatrical set of what you're creating your anxiety in, and it gets you out into something else.
You're hearing the birds chirp, you're seeing the sun, you're noticing other people going by, and so it kind of takes you out of that. that pit worrisome, I can't get out of my cave kind of thing. I want to read a couple more of these. This one says grab a sheet of paper and dump out all of the thoughts in your brain.
And so this one's fun. It's journaling. It has no rhyme or reason. It might be that like a to do list of like what you need to [00:09:00] clean and what you want to buy at the grocery. And then you just keep thinking about everything. Dump out all your thoughts. You know, you had a, You had a little, a little wiggling feeling in the back of your brain about maybe your best friend or about your, your mom or your sister or whoever, like whatever the thoughts are, you just dump them all out so that they feel like you've dumped completely out so that you can handle more.
So it says, this is a brain dump and organize and distress. Um, writing down your thoughts allows you to create a tangible place for everything that is causing stress. So, let me see. This one is kind of in alignment with the first one. Take a minute and focus on your breath. Where do you feel the breath?
Your chest, your belly, your nose, your throat. And so your breath goes into all those places, and so it becomes a body awareness type exercise. So you can kind of come into that awareness of your body instead of just being so in your mind about what's going on. what you're upset and worried [00:10:00] about. Um, paying attention to your breath is a great way to ground yourself when anxiety arises.
So one of the things I teach clients is that anxiety is a feeling. Feelings are brought on by thoughts. We also have, um, some psycho, the physiological kind of, uh, anxiety that our body and our hormones and the chemicals and all the things get going. And then we definitely need to see a doctor for those kinds of things.
But when that is coming, like when we can work with it ourselves, and there's nothing wrong with trying it on your own, just knowing like you may want to see a doctor, like think about what, where is that coming from? How does it feel? How does it feel in your body? So like how we just talked about the breath and how it feels in all the areas of your body, your nose, your throat, your chest, your stomach.
Think about how your anxiety feels in your body and really try to describe it. Break it down. It's going to normalize it and it's going to [00:11:00] neutralize it. It is very normal. Everybody has felt some kind of anxiety, whether it's to take a test, give a speech or worrying about their thoughts. And so when um, when you realize that that's very normal, you can neutralize it with that thought of normal.
You can also begin neutralizing it by breaking it down by sections, right? So I know I have a thought about something, I'm feeling anxious, and maybe I'm only feeling anxious because I'm resisting fear, inadequacy, I don't know, whatever, you know, embarrassment, um, some other feeling that you're feeling. And so if you resist it, like you're understanding the anxiety is there because of the other feeling.
And then you start to like, take all that in. That's all understanding is all information. It's great to know. And you also are noticing, my skin feels like it's tingly everywhere. I feel like I want to throw up. I have this [00:12:00] like total ability that I cannot quit crying right now. Inability to quit crying right now.
Um, that's usually the one I get. I'm, I'm, I feel things emotionally. So, um, and they come out in tears. So my friends call me a marshmallow because I'm crusty on the outside sometimes, like a s'more, but I'm super gooey on the inside. I'm very emotional. And so I just feel my emotions, um, very heightened easily.
So, um, but just understanding and then understanding that that causes those feelings in your body. Those feelings come up in other areas too, right? So your stomach dropping out. It does that on a roller coaster and you don't, you don't have that feeling of like anything's wrong with that. That's how it's supposed to happen.
So right now if you're, stomach's feeling like it's dropping out because you're feeling anxious. It's okay. It's just happening because of the anxiousness, just like it happened just when you were on a roller coaster. It's just something that [00:13:00] happens. So those are all different things that, um, you can, you can work with there.
Um, just remembering your normal, remembering that it, that it's, it's absolutely normal to have these feelings. You care. And so like sometimes the more you care intensely, the more you worry intensely too. It's kind of separating what our thinking is and understanding where those thoughts are, where they're coming from and why, and then just giving them the space they deserve without letting them take over everything.
And so noticing like, yeah, I, I'm anxious about this. Uh, speak it into a journal, speak it out loud, speak it to a friend, whatever, whatever, um, you, understand that that feeling of anxiety is coming from your thinking. And so as you're thinking something, the more you keep thinking that thought, the more you might notice that you're feeling that anxiety.
So, [00:14:00] Again, I tie this all back because when you are a person who has always eaten to comfort yourself or to distract yourself from your emotions, if you learn to really take charge of your anxiety or any emotion, I picked anxiety because I just happened to notice I was feeling it and because it's one that people Sometimes are a little more afraid of they feel out of control with as you realize like it's a feeling I can feel it It's okay where it came from.
How come it's there and then it will pass And it leaves you not needing to eat because you're now learning how to, if you're eating because you're anxious and you're not anxious for as long or as intense or as often anymore, you're going to notice that you don't need to eat over it. You're going to learn that you can deal with your anxiety and you no longer eat over it.[00:15:00]
So then that leaves you eating when you're hungry, which is exactly what it is. We eat when we're hungry. We enjoy the food we have when we're hungry and we're not eating to cover up all those emotions and feelings. So that's what I've got for you today. I want to tell you, I would love to work with you if it's you, if it's a friend, whoever I do concierge weight loss coaching and what that means is that if If there's no one way to lose weight, no one way, there's lots of ways out there.
And then they all try to put you into a program. Well, my program is that I do anything that you need. So sometimes people need a very strict formula. Sometimes people need to work through emotional issues first. Sometimes it's relationship issues and we're working through that. And so the reasons why you're eating well, Eating and gaining weight can be different for each and every person.
So when I work with you, I work [00:16:00] very individually with you. And so we're going to figure out whatever it is that you need so that you can go forward and feel confident that this is something you can do forever. It's it. I know you've heard it a billion times. It's not a diet. It's not a diet. And so I don't try to put you in a box.
A diet to me feels very, um, do this, don't do that kind of thinking, and we're just trying to figure out how to get you to have a healthy relationship with food again. Um, and a lot of that involves this kind of work where you're figuring out why you're eating for all the reasons. Sometimes it's habits, sometimes it's emotions, it's all kinds of things.
And so getting used to that practice of eating when you're hungry, enjoying it, loving it, and not, Um, restricting yourself or depriving yourself of anything. And so with that, um, usually you're able to like go forth and like figure out even more and more things. And [00:17:00] if it's something you're not, then I'm here for you for the next thing too.
So that is, that is how concierge weight loss coaching works. It's whatever you need and exactly when you need it. So if that's something you're interested in, I'm going to leave a link in the comments. I feel like this live or this video went a little bit longer than normal, but it was something I really wanted to talk to you about.
And uh, go ahead and click on the link below and you and I can talk so that we can figure out what your personal action plan needs to be. I'll talk to you later. Bye.
