I have discussed reflecting on what I consume as well as turning to my spirituality to combat my anxiety. In this post I will be focusing on getting back into a routine.
Whenever my anxiety resurfaces, I find that in the days or even weeks leading up to it that my routine has been thrown off in one way or another. Getting back into a routine can be difficult, so I like to remind myself to give myself grace as I work on rebuilding patterns. Taking it day by day helps immensely in taking pressure for perfection off my shoulders.
I know that time blocking the day helps a lot of people with establishing a routine. I have found this to be less effective in practice for my own life. If I have something scheduled for myself in a certain time-block I feel myself stuck in what I lovingly call “waiting mode” until it is time to do that task. Waiting mode sets off a whole different level of anxiety for me because I feel like I need to hit every mark at exactly every time- that is way too much pressure for me! On the other hand, if I am behind schedule I am personally more likely to skip the task altogether and try to reschedule it for the next day, again killing my productivity.
What I like to do to establish and keep a routine for myself is to use the reminders app on my phone. My sister in law actually put me onto this app and I am forever grateful for it! Using the reminders app helps me to lay out all of the tasks I need to accomplish in a day as well as have my recurring tasks such as taking my vitamins, moving my body, and doing my shower/skincare routine. Once I complete a task I can check it off and it will disappear from my list! If I want the task to be recurring, once I complete it I can change the date to the following day and it will automatically disappear from my to do list and re-appear for me tomorrow. The app has sections for morning, afternoon, and night if you prefer to schedule your day this way. I choose not to use those for reasons I discussed above.
This will likely conclude my anxiety reset series. I hope you were able to find value in some parts of these posts, I try to only share what has been genuinely helpful to my life. If you read this far, thanks so much!
Until next time,
-Sophia
The Working Homemaker 