“Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom.” ~ Søren Kierkegaard
Every day, you wake up with a sense of foreboding.
Your anxiety is like a dark cloud that follows you all day long.
You wish you could pinpoint the source of your anxiety but struggle to find a single cause.
Your life is full of obligations, decisions, expectations, and ambitions.
But all you wish for is a moment of peace amid the stress of living.
The good news is that you can conquer anxiety by choosing peace. Begin to experience peace right now by using one or more of these tools every day:
1. Breathe
Taking deep cleansing breaths will calm you down and help you feel better. It will give you control over yourself in difficult situations.
2. Show up
Be present to others. It will keep your mind off yourself.
3. Reflect
Take time to discern the various sources of your stress. Bring them into your conscious awareness. Write them down. You will gain clarity and your fears will subside.
4. Say no
The fear of missing out is rampant in our culture – so we try to do all and be all. But it’s a fool’s errand. Instead, say yes to the things you really want to pursue and say no to the rest.
5. Clean your workspace
Keep your workspace free of clutter. Make it a part of your daily routine.
6. Wake up early
Waking up early allows you to get ahead of the stresses of the day. Before launching into tasks, take some time to sit in silence.
7. Pray
Prayer is another way to transcend yourself. Prayer is the acknowledgement that you cannot handle everything on your own and that you need help. Surrendering your anxieties in prayer will help you on the path to peace.
8. Practice the Sabbath
We’ve collectively forgotten about how to celebrate the Sabbath. The Sabbath is a day of rest from all work and concerns of our daily lives. Consider resurrecting this practice in your own life.
9. Cultivate your creativity
If you’re drawn to art, draw. If you play a musical instrument, play. If you like writing, write. Have no intention of producing a masterpiece. Just engage your creativity for its own sake.
10. Choose simplicity
Simplify your life in ways large and small. Throw out things you no longer use or need. Be mindful of new purchases.
11. Sleep
Fear and concern keeping you up at night? Get some sleep. Because you won’t solve your problems when you’re tired. Getting rest will give you distance, perspective, and energy to face your obstacles.
12. Write a letter
Write a letter to someone just to let them know you’re thinking about them. No agendas. No requests.
13. Watch the company you keep
Surround yourself with people who are positive and uplifting. Be especially wary of people who gain their peace by disturbing the peace of others.
14. Take a retreat
Take a weekend retreat. Even an overnight retreat will do wonders for your emotional health. Leave the screens at home.
15. Let go
Approach every day with the sense that you will do all you can to the best of your ability. Commit to letting go the rest.
16. Turn off the car radio
Enjoy some silent commutes in your car. Resist turning the radio or plugging in your device every time you drive.
17. Exercise
Interrupt your stress response with exercise or movement.
18. Censor your inner news junkie
Want to stay engaged with world events but don’t want to get bogged down with the gory details? One way to do this is to limit your news intake. Oftentimes, the headlines alone have all the information you need.
19. Gamify your life
Use the points system to go beyond anxiety and move toward your goals. Quantify stuff, keep track of your progress, adapt and adjust to get the score you want. And most importantly, have fun with the process.
20. Automate
You make hundreds of decisions every day. You can eliminate some of this cognitive load by automating the areas of your life that cause you the most anxiety. For instance, you can automate your finances, what you wear to work, or even what you prepare for dinner.
21. Live your values
Commit to living your deeply held values, even when it’s inconvenient. You may have short-term stress but you will experience peace long-term.
Enjoy your life
Life is hard. But you don’t need to live a hard life.
You can experience peace even when external circumstances conspire against it.
You have everything you need right now to enjoy your life and experience peace.
So, why wait?
Hi Cylon,
Lovely list – essence of simple but vital considerations. I won’t waffle on – thank you.
You’re most welcome 🙂
Taken individually, all of these are so simple, things that I think we all instinctively ‘know’, but when you put them together, it makes sense to stop the endless cycle in our minds by taking a conscious step back from the external, and refocus on the internal. Thanks for the gentle reminder!
I totally agree. I think this is the essence of the spiritual life – the paradoxical nature of the “simple” things that we all know instinctively. One of the primary reasons I blog, apart from helping others, is to challenge myself to always be executing on the simple things I know will enhance the quality of my life. Thanks for the comment!