Gratitude Practice 2020 Day 202: The Power of a Determined Detox
It's been one full week since I began a determined detox to help reduce my growing anxiety and I could not be more grateful or more surprised. There are endless self help books, podcasts, wordy blog and TED talks focused on the power of making small changes to enact big changes in your life. And I feel I've watched, listed and read all of them but this week I became a believer. Amen and praise Jesus! Change is possible and my significantly improved mood and outlook is proof positive. Last week, I began a determined detox of anxiety inducing things in my life. In addition, I strategically added in a series of small tasks and practices to see if I could wrangle some of these dilapidating feelings. Can't put my finger on the one silver bullet that worked because I believe all things working together are making the difference. Here goes:
A very selective dose of news and for a limited time each day.
A friendly yet honest edit of my people in my social media feeds. With so much anxiety bubbling up everywhere I need to choose what stimulus I let enter my world. I cannot silence or stop all information channels...but where can...I will control the amount of anxiety inducing information that enters my orbit.
A determined choice that IF I so choose to open social media it would be for a limited amount of time if at all. And now that my feed has been reduced it will hopefully be more positive than not.
I've upped my daily water intake.
I'm writing Morning Pages first thing everyday
I'm writing my Gratitude Practices daily
I took Friday off and spent the entire day by myself at the pool drenched in restorative sunshine.
I scheduled the next five Fridays off... because I deserve the mental break and I've got plenty of paid time off.
I'm taking one kind of sleeping aid or another about thirty minutes before I attempt sleeping...some nights Tyneol PM. Some nights a few benadryl. And most nights some chewy Melatonin gummies.
Peppermint oil is either slathered all over my neck and back each night or it is diffused from my bedside table.
I'm falling asleep to a meditation app gently flowing into my brain via earbuds.
I'm moving my body more and more consistently.
I'm working on keeping my dishes and kitchen clean.
So very grateful to report that this is working. It may seem extreme. It may seem dramatic...but I'm totally okay with that... because both my anxiety levels and my stress levels are both extreme and dramatic...so you know...measure for measure.
Today, just simply grateful that each of these and all of these things are working. Grateful to feel less rage-y. Grateful to have finally experienced some decent and consistent sleep. Grateful to be feeling more human again.