Ep 291 Anxious, Depressed, Over-Whelmed and Isolated; What You Can Do

The Super Fantastic Leadership Show

Today we are going to be offering a lot of tips with how to work with the experiences of anxiety, depression, overwhelm and isolation. First, we want to recognize the experience we are experiencing. So often we do attempt to rush to solutions to “get rid” of our experience or to force it to change in some way. We don’t trust the process as it is happening. We’ve also been told a lot of stories about our experiences too. The stories we’ve all been told begin with some form of “should” or “shouldn’t”. We shouldn’t be sad, we should be happy and grateful, for example. In times of uncertainty we can lose our very real need for agency. Agency is the experience we have when we feel as though we can influence or change a situation in a particular way. This gives us a sense of control, safety and security. When we feel uncertain it can be difficult for us to find the ways we are still in our power and control. This is often what begins to bring up experiences of feeling fearful, overwhelmed, and all of the variations of emotional experiences. Here are some tips that we give for these different experiences. Anxiety: feels like reaching into the future: the 3 tips-meditation practice, do one thing at a time, do some 4 x 4 breathing. Depression: feels like being in cement shoes and dull: 3 tips-gratitude practices, finding laughter (one of my favorite SNL sketches), physical activity Overwhelm: feels like not knowing where to begin: the 3 tips-follow the steps in this 10′ to presence video, watch out for all or nothing thinking, take an action. Isolated: feels like being lonely and disconnected (from ourselves): the 3 tips-ask what do I need? what might others need too, ask for what you need, take action. Here is a link to the RAIN meditation that we spoke about in the show too.