For this week’s Wellness Wednesday instalment, Clinical Psychologist at LightHouse Arabia Daniela Salazar talks through her advice on coping with and soothing daily anxieties.
Experts at LightHouse Arabia offer their expert tips for dealing with daily anxiety
Throughout the month of May, a&e is teaming up with LightHouse Arabia – the Dubai-based community mental health and wellness clinic – to offer up advice and tips for dealing with the mental health issues many people face at some point in their life, if not regularly.
And this week, we are focusing in on anxiety. While anxiety can be a normal emotion and reaction to certain events, a constant feeling of anxiety or such a reaction to irrational triggers can negatively affect a person’s mental health.
Speaking to Daniela Salazar, a Clinical Psychologist at LightHouse Arabia, here’s the advice she had to offer to help minimise the daily effects of anxiety.
Coping With Daily Anxiety
Daniela Salazar is a Clinical Psychologist at LightHouse Arabia
Constant check-ins
Being able to have several check-ins throughout the day can be very useful. With our daily activities, we tend to act on “auto” mode most of the time and we aren’t aware of how we are feeling and how what we are thinking about might act as a trigger to anxiety (work, family, school or something else). Writing in a journal when you are feeling stressed or anxious can also help to identify patterns and triggers and create self-awareness.
Create a self-care routine
Listening to music, getting a massage, practising yoga, doing a sport or meditating – these are all activities that help us step back from the problem and helps us clear our minds. Having this scheduled in your calendar is extremely important and useful.
Rest Up
When we are well rested we are able to make decisions and behave in ways that is more in line with our values. Having poor sleep has been linked to various medical and mental health issues. We should be getting around eight hours of sleep every day to improve our overall health. It helps us restore our bodies. It is also very important to limit screen time before you go to bed. The light that the phone or tablet emits keeps the brain awake and limits the quality of your sleep. Consider getting an alarm instead of using your phone as the alarm.
Limit caffeine
Caffeine is a central nervous system stimulant (as are depressant drinks) meaning it can contribute highly to anxiety. When we consume large doses of either of them, we are more prone to having mood changes due to the effect they have on various neurotransmitters in our brain.
Talk about it
Being able to talk to family and friends about how we feel can be very useful. Also, talking to a therapist for professional help can be very useful to learn more in-depth about anxiety and its treatment.
Head to lighthousearabia.com for more information on its services.
Getting a good night’s rest can limit anxiety
READ: Wellness Wednesday: Tips For Tackling Everyday Stress and Burnout from LightHouse Arabia
