Welcome back!

I hope you took some time and listened to your body and mind to help figure out how to help it.

Today we will be going over step 2 of our tool, of how to reduce anxiety.

“You have to define your needs before you can choose the right step. It takes an unmet need to stimulate your dopamine. It takes a new step toward social trust to stimulate oxytocin. it takes a new moment of social importance to stimulate your serotonin. So set your time for one minute and find out what you most need right now.” It’s ok, I’ll wait right here for you.

“You may not feel like doing this in a moment of anxiety. You can only imagine things going wrong. Step 2 will help you prevent that. Skip Step 2 if it’s a real emergency. You’ll know it’s a real emergency if your do-something siren blasts and you know exactly what to do. At other times, you don’t know what you need, so you rely on hold habits that don’t really serve you.”

Step 2:
Do something you like that completely absorbs you for twenty (20) minutes.

Why twenty minutes? The reasoning behind that time frame is because the chemical cortisol has a half-life of 20 minutes. Well, what does that mean? It means, that the amount of cortisol in the body will be halved in those 20 minutes (as long as more is not triggered, and being under anxiety, we are pro’s at finding more threatening situations). Less cortisol means less anxiety and a clearer picture within the mind’s eye.

What would you do, that would be so immersible, that you’d get lost in the activity. It could be working on a knitting project, or painting/drawing a picture. It could be a walk outside (+ that wonderful Vitamin D from the sun).

These activities, because having more than one go-to is a wise move, should be ones that:
fully absorbs your mind;
can be picked up and put down quickly;
have no harmful long-term consequences;

What would be some activities for you?

'“Be mindful that it is important to have realistic expectations. You do not need to create a state of euphoria. You only need to distract your mind from thoughts that add fuel to your fire.”

So, now you have figured out what your body needs, have distracted your mind from seeing more threats by implementing the twenty-minute activity, which will lower your cortisol amount coursing through your body. Now what?

Come back next time to see what step 3 brings, and how to implement the full tool into your everyday!

As always, if you need help in adding this tool to your everyday life, coaches at Creative Reflections are available to meet with you and are eager to work with you!