Our relationships with the people in our lives are cornerstones of our success, happiness, and wholeness. To care for our relationships means to care for ourselves, and that means to care for how we feel, which can definitely include anxiety.
If you experience anxiety often, or you have struggled with anxiety interfering with your relationships, then this episode is for you.
Here, we discuss what you can do to strengthen and support your relationships while you learn to manage anxiety so that it doesn’t cause you or your loved ones any trouble.
In This Episode:
· How the Nervous System Reacts
· Learn About Your Body
· Don’t Blame it On the Anxiety
· Reclaim Your Power
How the Nervous System Reacts
A partner may say something offhandedly and it could flare up a response in their partner. Or, someone might misinterpret the words or actions of their partner as being malicious when it was a simple but hurtful misunderstanding.
Our nervous system doesn’t know the difference between real or imagined danger and will react the same in both situations. So, even if your partner didn’t mean to trigger you, you may respond as if it was an intentional misdoing.
Learn About Your Body
One of the first steps to unravelling the tension that unchecked anxiety in relationships can cause is to get better at identifying when it’s present within your body.
Do you feel a tension in your stomach, tight shoulders or throat, or an urge to leave the room? Do you get aggressive, frustrated, or quickly aggravated?
Knowing these signs and understanding that they come from an activated nervous system will help you to know when you need to step back and self-regulate for a while.
Don’t Blame it On the Anxiety
Even though anxiety can feel overpowering at times, at the end of the day – no matter how strong the anxiety feels – you are the one that makes the choices you make.
Blaming your reactions or decisions on anxiety can give context to the situation, however, by also not taking accountability for your actions, it may harm your relationships because not taking responsibility can be detrimental to relationships.
Reclaim Your Power
So, learning how to stand up to anxiety and not allow it to have full control is a necessary and doable step!
Do you react powerfully to the presence of anxiety? Take a big, deep breath. Another. Bring yourself back, think for a few seconds, and feel grounded in your body again before you take action.
Do you avoid life when anxiety is present? Try to engage with it, even gently. Take small steps toward the goal of managing your anxiety enough so that you can engage more with the world and the life that you want to experience.
You can take steps toward building and enjoying the life that you want without feeling anxiety tugging you around. It is possible, and help is ready for you when you need it!
Resources Mentioned and Useful Links:
Ep 03: How to Stand Up to Anxiety
Book an appointment with Jane or Julia at www.insightmentalhealth.ca
Read our blog about anxiety
