Stressed Out

I am a naturally stressed person. With a busy schedule, and the weight of my soon to be adulthood coming crashing down on me, my anxiety flares up and I get insanely stressed. My therapist recently recommended a few different tricks to try to help me deal with it.

#1. Yoga

I really am not flexible, and don''t enjoy yoga, but my wonderful therapist recently recommended some yoga poses to diminish stress in my body, and to help me sleep better. She recommended that I go search for poses to deal with stress on Pinterest, and I found a lot of options. I have a couple of favorites that have been working for me lately, and continue to search through different apps and websites for more.

#2. Going to Sleep Earlier

This one is difficult for me becuase my day starts at 5:30 in the morning, and I get home around 8:00 in the evening. Then is family dinner, homework, showering, more homework, violin practice, more homework, then bed time. I am usually pretty proud of myself if I am in bed before midnight. Now that I know that lack of sleep is really messing with my stress levels and anxiety, I am making more of a concious effort to get to sleep by 10:30 every night.

And finally...

#3. Headspace

Headspace is a fantastic (free!) meditation app. It just takes 10-12 minutes, and you can do it sitting down, lying down, or standing up. The way the app is organized, there are different levels you complete, and different "packs" and topics that you can go through. You do a level a day, and while my therapist recommends doing it at or around the same time everyday, I fit it in when I can. Often times, I am doing it in my car before school starts, during lunch, or inbetween activities. If I am being driven somewhere, I will put my headphones in, and silently listen to the recording (it's a fun little British man), and do whatever I am instructed to do.

-Lauren Hansen