How To Relieve Stress and Anxiety When You'd Rather Strangle Someone Instead
I don’t know if you could tell when I wrote my bedtime ritual post last week, but I was stressed. I could feel the stress leading to anger and anxiety and I knew that this wasn’t a good place to be. My health didn’t appreciate it.
I’d gotten to the point that I wanted to go to my neighbor’s place armed with a blowdryer, set it on high and just spray hot air on his face for about 20 minutes. I visited my mom’s house on Sunday and I came back with one of my sister’s tennis balls with a plot to cause a ruckus on his wall at 6 am.
I didn’t like the way these thoughts felt at all and I knew it was the sign that I’d strayed really far away from center and needed to get back ASAP.
Here’s what I did to resolve this:
Don’t ruminate on it. I found myself thinking about this over and over and over and over again. All the things I wanted to say. All the ways he was being considerate. Things that I could do to get even. I talked about it with all my friends. This gives negative feelings momentum. It’s a cycle that will continue and it’s what helps add to the add “wall closing in” feeling. Stop talking about the issue. Instead…
Do affirmations. Whenever the feelings popped up, I started repeating, “My home is peaceful and quiet.” Instead of focusing on what I didn’t want, I started focusing on what I wanted. I said a bunch of other affirmations as well and focused on the things I was grateful for. After a few hours, I could feel my mood lift. I wasn’t tense, anxious, or angry anymore.
Don’t eat your emotions. It can be easy to channel stress into food. But when your body is under stress, it’s more important than ever to make sure that you’re getting the nutrition that you need to thrive. Eating a bunch of sugary processed food will only delay the time that it takes to get your body and mind back to center. Instead…
Do journal. Take the time to write out what you’re feeling and why you’re feeling that way. When it’s a person that’s causing you anger or stress, it’s never really about them. There’s something that you’re feeling that this experience is trying to draw your attention to.
Once I focused on these four things, the stress lifted…the tension went away…I could meditate again. I was happy. I felt really good.
If you find yourself stuck in a negative cycle of stress, bad thoughts, or anxiety, give these steps a try. No matter what someone else is doing, you’re always in control over how you feel. It can be good to get the anger out, but don’t get stuck there.