5 Ways to Ease Anxiety Around Adulting

For as long as you can remember, you’ve wanted to be older. You grew tired relatively quickly of your parents saying you couldn’t do certain activities until you reached a certain age.

You had to go to be home and bed at a certain time. PG-13 movies recommend that you are at least 13 years old. You can only get your driver’s permit once you’re 15, and you have to wait an entire year after that before you can get your driver’s license once you reach the age of 16. In order to buy a lottery ticket, you have to be 18. And you can’t drink alcohol until you’re 21.

You always said that you couldn’t wait until you were older so you could do things your way. But now that it’s here, it’s not as fun as you thought it would be. Let’s face it: Adulting is hard.

Here are 5 ways to ease anxiety around adulting.

1. Take Care of Yourself

One of the best things you can do when you’re struggling with anxiety is to take care of yourself. The simple act of taking care of yourself can help you shake off any anxious feelings the next time you feel them coming on. Make sure you’re fueling your body properly with healthy and well-balanced meals throughout the day. Make sure you’re drinking enough water. And you should be aiming for at least eight hours of sleep each night.

Read more: Strategies to Sleep Better

2. Move Your Body

Moving your body is another great and fairly easy way to ease anxiety. Exercise has been proven to improve your overall mental health and wellness, decrease stress, and increase one’s mood.

You don’t have to exercise for hours on end to see the benefits, either. Moving your body just means increasing your heart rate and getting your blood pumping for at least thirty minutes each day. Try going for a walk outside, hitting up a local studio with a friend, or hopping on an indoor cycling bike. Find whatever works best for you and get after it.

3. Start a Journal

Journaling can be a great way to get all of those anxious thoughts and feelings out instead of holding them inside yourself with nowhere to go. Release those thoughts and emotions onto the pages of your journal instead.

Plus, journaling is not only great in the moment that you’re feeling anxious, but it can also be a great tool to look back on later. Looking back on your journal entries can help you learn more about your anxiety, as well as things you may have done that helped or didn’t help, so you’re better able to plan moving forward.

4. Practice Mindfulness

A lot of anxiety actually stems from worrying about things from the past or things from the future that haven’t even occurred yet. Mindfulness can be a great way to bring yourself back to the present moment. There are a lot of things you can do in your day-to-day to practice mindfulness that you may not have even considered. Here are just a few of the ways to practice mindfulness:

• Deep breathing
• Get outside
• Listen to music
• Draw or doodle in a notebook
• Stretch
• Yoga

5. Seek Additional Support

If your anxiety is starting to impact your daily life and routine, it may be time to seek additional support. A licensed and trained mental health professional, like a therapist, can work with you to get to the root cause of your anxiety and help you manage any signs or symptoms you may be experiencing. Reach out to us today if you’re interested in setting up a consultation.